


Forgotten Lies in a Dystopian Heaven

by cutelittlekitty



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU-Dystopian Future, Abduction, Anal Sex, Brainstorming, Confrontation, Denial, Drugs, Exposition, F/F, F/M, First Time, Heaven is a city-dome, Heterosexual Sex, Lesbian Sex, M/M, Memory/Mind Tampering, Mental Torture, Multi, NSFW, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Plot, Public Sex, Questionable Consent, Regression Hypnosis, Scars, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Sex Toys, Shadiness, Strategizing, Surveillance, allusions to torture, blowjob, infidelity (Chuck sleeps around Naomi doesn’t care-everyone knows), mention of sex not remembered ‘cause drugs, mutual orgasms, non-descriptive recollection of gangbang (sorry), reporter!Charlie, sabriel tenderness, tech!Charlie, underage (over 14 and consentual so it's not illegal in the dome), unwitting prostitution, use of sedatives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-06-23 04:11:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 63,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15598017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutelittlekitty/pseuds/cutelittlekitty
Summary: Things are great in the city-dome of Heaven.  Everyone stops aging around 30 and physical illness and disease have been eradicated, so no one dies of natural causes.  Future careers are chosen in pre-school and the better you are at your area of study, the sooner you pass your challenge, the less you have to work.  Required work hours get you basic housing, food, necessities, and entertainment; overtime gets you perks.  It's Heaven.  And Heaven's not as great as it seems.





	1. Missing Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> This fic's a bit darker than I'm used to writing. The story itself has the potential to be great, assuming i can craft it well enough, but the darkness is a part of that story. I don't plan to go into explicit detail on the... shadier things, but i already went into more detail in the first chapter than i'd planned, so no guarantees. Guess i would recommend if you don't like the content in Law and Order SVU then this isn't the fic for you. I will try, very hard, to use thorough and accurate warnings and tags, but please keep in mind i'm new at tagging so if i've missed any important tags, my apologies and please point them out to me so i can add them. I’ve included all the pairings and characters I expect to come up and play important roles, along with some tags I know will come up though may not yet be relevant. I’ll include chapter pairings and tags with each chapter and add new tags to the main list as they come up.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tracking kids is easy in the city-dome of Heaven. Everyone has the trace until they pass their challenge, so a parent or guardian just has to slap a palm on a computer and ask where their kid is. Not so easy for brothers though; they can't run a trace, only their parents can. Which leaves old-fashioned sleuthing the only way for Dean to find his missing brother Sam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Mature
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Lucifer/Sam, Lucifer/Meg
> 
>   **Chapter Characters:** Dean Winchester, Castiel Novak, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Gabriel Shurley, Sam Winchester, Lucifer Shurley, Alastair, Meg
> 
>  **Chapter Tags/warnings:** underage (over 14 and consentual so it's not illegal in the dome), questionable consent, blowjob, public sex, heterosexual sex,

Dean glared at the clock with a frustrated sigh. Sammy should have been home hours ago. Normally he wouldn't mind; Sam was a good kid and Dean trusted him. But he was taking the challenge again tomorrow and Dean wanted to make sure Sam was well-fed and well-rested. Hell, Sammy was smarter than Dean; he should've passed the first time he took it. The fact that he didn't was mind-boggling. Sure, Sam was only 14 then, but it was almost like he wasn't even trying, even though he'd been begging to take the challenge since he was 12. Had he succeeded at 14, Sam's work weeks would only have been 16 hours. Having passed his mechanic's challenge when he was 16, Dean had to work 20 hours a week which left him plenty of time to look after his little brother. Dad hadn't done as well; he'd been 20 when he passed, which earned him 60 hour work weeks, and nearly every moment not working he was in the holo-room, reliving the same few years he'd had with their mom before she was killed. How he could do that over and over and not go insane, Dean had no idea. Hell, for all he knew, Dad _had_ gone insane; they rarely ever saw him, so who could say?

Which meant finding Sammy was gonna be a pain in the ass. Because the only way to use the tracer was if Dad activated it, which would mean pulling him outta his dream world, which would mean Dean getting his ass kicked. Never mind that he was twenty and well able to protect himself; he wouldn't. Not against Dad. So tracking Sam down would have to be done the old-fashioned way. First stop, Learning Modules. Maybe his brother was getting in some last-minute cramming. It was a five-minute walk to the nearest TC station. Or a three-and-a-half-minute jog. Two-minute run. One minute, fifty seconds later Dean arrived at the station, pausing to catch his breath and tap his foot impatiently as he waited for the next Turbo Chair. Finally, one zoomed up, plastic bubble sliding open, and Dean sat inside, saying 'Learning Modules' clearly as the bubble closed. Everything outside seemed to melt and blur. Seconds later he was at the station outside the LM. 

After giving his handprint to the computer at the front desk, the teacher there checked his brother's record. Sam had left over an hour ago. On a hunch, he asked if Gabriel Shurley had left at the same time. Though the teacher refused to give out information on a student, especially one from such a prominent family, a wink and smile from Dean had her nodding in the affirmative. Thanking the young woman for her time, Dean headed back to the station to catch a chair to Northaven, the nicest sector in the dome, which bordered the north side of the challenge ring. 

Gabriel was Sam's best friend and while Dean had never been to his house, everyone knew where the Shurleys lived. Chuck Shurley was both the founder of Heaven and the creator of the dome system itself. Not only was he a mechanical genius, but a scientific one as well. Granted he'd built on previous discoveries and breakthroughs in addition to having help from his wife Naomi, who was an expert in bio-chemistry, but still, it was his unique way of seeing different paths for research to take that had led to the eradication of illness, disease, germs, and aging. Of course, that was many, many years ago. These days he was rarely seen outside, though it was rumored he still snuck out often to hook up with old lovers, or find new ones. The guy was a freakin' legend which made the thought of showing up at his house a bit terrifying.

But if anyone knew where Sammy was it'd be Gabe. So he found himself outside the huge building, palming the scanner and hoping the one to answer the door would be Sam's friend. Or even better, Sam himself. No such luck, though.

"Winchester? Any relation to Sam?" asked the dark-haired guy with striking blue eyes and a gravelly voice who opened the door.

"Yeah, I'm his older brother," Dean said sheepishly, not sure if this was one of the many Shurley kids (because of course Chuck was exempted from the two-kid rule), or an employee. "I was wondering if he was here, or if not, if Gabriel might know where he is?"

“Sorry, neither of them are here. I was actually just going to look for Gabriel myself,” the guy replied.

“Why not just trace him?” Dean asked. He couldn’t disturb his own dad to do a scan, but surely Gabriel’s parents could spare a few seconds to slap a palm on a computer.

“Naomi is working and Father is… out,” the guy said, eyebrows scrunching together.

“Oh. Well, Gabriel and Sam are probably together. Maybe we could help each other look?” Dean suggested.

“That would be logical,” the guy agreed, stepping out of the house and closing the door behind him. “I’m Castiel Novak, by the way. Gabriel’s older half-brother,” he said, holding out his hand awkwardly.

“Dean,” said Dean, shaking the offered hand. Castiel would already know since the computer would have listed the full name of the person at the door, but it was polite to introduce himself properly anyway.

“I have a… contact in security who should be able to help. I was going to try him first,” Cas said, heading toward the TC station.

“Contact?” Dean asked, following.

“Someone who can help. It’s… complicated.”

“So, kind of a friends-with-benefits deal?”

“What? No! He’s my… never mind,” Cas said as they reached the TC station. “Security Station A,” he informed Dean before stepping into a waiting Turbo Chair and zooming away.

Curiosity piqued, Dean took the next chair over, following. He didn’t miss the significance of the location of Castiel’s friend. SS-A was the top security branch which, in addition to covering its sector, Southaven, also had jurisdiction over all the other Security Stations. Dean also noted there were three more chairs waiting in the station, two more arriving just before the outside world blurred. Apparently residents of Northaven were too good to have to wait for a chair like the rest of the dome. When his chair stopped right outside the Security Station Dean hopped out, rushing to follow Castiel who was already entering the building.

“Is Balthazar in?” Cas asked as he palmed the reader at the front desk.

“He’s in his office,” the person manning the desk replied. “Go on in.”

“Dean’s with me,” Castiel added as Dean gave the computer his own palm.

“Of course. Please,” They were both gestured toward the back.

Following Castiel, Dean looked around when they entered the moderately sized room. Computer drives lined the walls, floor to ceiling, likely holding information on every citizen in the dome, since SS-A covered all sectors. The other stations only handled the sector where they were located. In the center of the room, an overstuffed sofa bordered by matching chairs on each side sat in front of a large desk, the only thing on top of it a steaming coffee mug. Like most desks and workstations, the computer was built in, anti-glare plastic covered screen in the center activated by the recognized voice of its user. And of course, the customary palm reader set into the right corner of each side. Behind the desk sat a man who must be over 150 years old, because he looked to be in his 40s, which meant he must have entered the dome and gotten his age stasis back when Chuck Shurley had founded it over 120 years ago. These days, while there were still quite a few of those older-appearing, early inhabitants, most of the population were physically around 30 years old, the age at which stasis naturally kicked in.

“Cassie. You rarely visit at work.” Balthazar said in way of greeting, a light, pre-dome accent to his voice.

“Sorry, brother. Gabriel said he’d be back early today but hasn’t come home yet,” Cas replied, getting right to the point.

“No need for apologies; I’m always happy to see you,” the older man smiled, palming the scanner on his side of the desk. “Gabriel Shurley, location,” he told the computer, glancing down at the screen. “Hmm. He’s in The Garden,” the Sec said, standing. “I’ll go with you, shall I?” he added, though it wasn’t really a question.

Castiel nodded, turned and headed out the door, leaving Dean to follow.

“Dean Winchester, isn’t it? I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure,” Balthazar said as they headed for the TCs.

“Yeah,” Dean grunted, not sure if he liked the man. 

“What’s your part in all this? Are you a friend of Castiel’s?”

“Just met. My brother’s friends with Gabriel and I’m hoping they’re together.”

“Ah, I see.”

They reached the TCs and zipped off to The Garden. Once there, Dean frowned and reluctantly put his hand on the scanner. The Garden was free for children but cost two credits per quarter (3 months) from everyone else; Dean had some credits banked but hated wasting them, though of course Sammy was worth it. 

Balthazar took point, leading them to where the map had shown Gabriel to be about two minutes ago. Fortunately, he was still there, sitting morosely under a tree, picking at the grass. Unfortunately, Sam was nowhere in sight.

“Gabriel. You said you were coming home early today,” Cas chastised as they approached.

Not having heard them coming, Gabriel jumped, looking up guiltily. “I was waiting for Sam,” he mumbled, gaze dropping back to the grass.

“He was supposed to be home early today, too,” Dean said, crossing his arms over his chest. Gabriel frowned, refusing to meet Dean’s gaze. “Do you know where he is?”

The teen shook his head. “Ok, do you know who he’s with?” Frown deepening to a grimace, the boy shrugged.

“Gabriel, this is serious. Dean is concerned for his younger brother, just like I’ve been worried about you. Answer him.” Castiel insisted.

“… -fer” mumbled Gabe in response.

“Gabe,” Balthazar said, squatting in front of the teen and tucking a finger under Gabriel’s chin to draw the boy’s gaze up, “you’re not in trouble and neither is Sam; we just want to know the two of you are safe. Now, speak up, who’s Sam with?”

“’S wth,” Gabriel paused, taking a deep breath and staring into his older half-brother’s blue eyes as though drawing strength from the confident, steady gaze. “He’s with Lucifer,” he said clearly, though his voice was still a bit soft and he was trembling.

Castiel’s brows furrowed. “Your- Our brother?” Gabriel nodded. “Why did you not want to say so?”

“I- He- Luc has been… different the last few years. I don’t like Sam hanging around with him.”

“Why not?” Dean demanded quickly, concern growing at Gabriel’s apparent fear.

“I… I don’t know, really. I just… Luc and I used to be so close, but now… I just get scared when I see him and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s ‘cause he’s been hanging around with Alastair?” Gabriel seemed unsure, but his apprehension was genuine.

“Do you know where he hangs out?” Balthazar asked gently, still squatting in front of his much younger half-brother.

Gabe shook his head. “He always picks Sam up at the entrance here, or the entrance of The Zoo, then Sam comes back a few hours later. I think today it looked like Luc might’ve been saying E8 when he was in the TC, but it was already closed so I couldn’t hear; I could be wrong.”

“Always? They’ve gone off together before?” Dean asked.

Nodding, Gabriel said, “Several times a week for the past two years,” looking as though he was barely holding back tears.

Dean saw black. Lucifer was the oldest of the Shurley boys, and he and his brother Michael, along with Raphael who had died of some disease, had been born before the dome. In fact, it had been Raphael’s early death that had prompted Chuck Shurley to eradicate illness and aging. The point being, Lucifer was definitely over 120 years old, probably closer to 160, so what the fuck was he doing hanging out with a sixteen-year-old? Without another word he turned on his heel and stalked toward the entrance.

“I’ll go with you,” Cas said, hurrying after him. “Zar, can you take Gabe home, please?”

Balthazar waved an affirmative as his brother left The Garden, then turned back to Gabriel with a forced grin, helping him up. Something was off in Heaven. It had been pinging his intuition for years now, but so far, other than kids occasionally going off the radar and always turning up fine at either The Garden or The Zoo, he hadn’t had any leads on what it was. And while he’d noticed Lucifer being a bit scarcer than he used to be, there hadn’t been any other apparent changes in his personality or habits. But if Luc was involved in something shady with kids… the guy had a silver tongue and could charm the pants off a nun. Not to mention Michael doted on him. Balthazar and Castiel were both barely-acknowledged products of an affair, and they’d only been recognized and accepted into the family because their mother had killed herself shortly after Cassie’s birth. At that point, he’d been 142 years old, perfectly able to raise his baby brother on his own and well past needing a father’s protection. But Mother had wanted Cassie to know his father, so when Chuck had asked to adopt them, Balthazar had allowed it, though refusing to change their last names. The point being, if Luc was involved in something bad, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that any of the family would believe an accusation from Balthazar with anything less than irrefutable evidence. And even then they might still not accept it.

 

*****

 

Stepping out of the TC, Dean looked around. Being narrowed down to a sector didn’t help much; each sector covered miles of land, and that’s assuming Gabriel had managed to lip-read his brother correctly. Dean had no idea where to start.

“In the sectors along the outside circumference, the areas closest to the walls tend to be less populated. I would suggest we start there, then work our way in,” Castiel supplied as he came up beside Dean.

“Right. So that would be…” Heaven’s artificial daylight was supplied by a bright solar collector directly above Center, which drew in light from the sun, filtered out the harmful rays, using their energy to power Heaven, and sent most of the healthy, vitamin-D rich light to shine from the center of the dome for 12 hours a day. Therefore, regardless of where you were, putting your back to the artificial light source and walking away from it would have you moving toward the outer rim of the dome. Dean oriented himself and pointed. “that way.”

Nodding, Castiel headed in the indicated direction. Dean caught up and surpassed him quickly, setting a swift pace. Anxiety over his little brother’s safety spurred him to move faster. By the time they reached the street nearest the outer edge of the dome, they were jogging. “Split up?” Cas asked. Dean nodded, heading right. Cas turned left, calling over his shoulder. “head back here if you find him or once you’ve reached the south end of the sector.”

Jogging past buildings interspersed with playground lounges, Dean kept his eyes peeled for people. The lounges were the most likely places for anyone hanging out. Consisting of wide stretches of artificial turf, they featured play equipment meant to stimulate both mind and body, comfortable chairs, sofas, and tables where parents could watch children play in comfort or families and friends could eat together, and Booths surrounding the area, all uniformly 8x8x8 foot cubes, evenly spaced. Booths could also be found on most street corners and in all public gathering places. They provided computer access so you could send, check, and receive messages or synthesize food, and, via holo-technology, could become either a Bioc (what had once been called a bathroom), private seating area, or bedroom for those who, for whatever reason, couldn’t make it home to sleep.

The first two lounges he passed were empty. The next had two men and a woman, no kids. Then there was another empty lounge. After that he passed one with several small children and a woman, then reached the end of the Sector. Hoping Castiel'd had more luck, he turned and headed back the way he'd come. But as he reached the building north of the middle lounge he found Castiel coming toward him at a swift jog; no Sammy with him.

"No luck?" Cas asked. Dean shook his head 'no'. "Me either. Should we split up again and work our way in, or... Wait, that's Lucifer over there," he said, brows furrowing as he pointed to the lounge Dean had just passed.

The man on the sofa looked mid-forties and had messy blonde hair. The chair beside him was occupied by a tall, thin man and a small woman with dark, wavy hair knelt subserviently between the chair and couch. Dean's anger was back in full force. He didn't like the look of either man and wasted no time stalking over to the front of the seating as he called out, "Lucifer! Where's my-" Voice cutting out with a strangled noise, he saw the answer to his question and wished he hadn't. A mop of longish brown hair moved over the older man's lap and the unfastened zipper that was partially visible was proof that what he was seeing was exactly what it looked like. "What the fuck!?! Sam!" Dean exclaimed, sounding way more like Dad than he was comfortable with but damned if he wasn't pissed.

Sam's head came up and he turned a glassy-eyed stare on Dean.

"Hey, now, not done yet Sammy-boy." Lucifer smirked at Dean, pushing Sam's head back down into his lap.

"I'll fuckin' _kill_ you," Dean spat, launching himself at the man. Somehow Castiel was between them, stopping Dean though it seemed impossible his lithe, runner's body could be strong enough.

"Dean, calm down. Luc, stop what you're doing this instant," Cas said, trying to keep the situation from going nuclear.

"I'm not doing anything," Lucifer shrugged, arms wide and resting over the back of the sofa, still smirking at Dean who was wishing looks could kill as he struggled against Castiel. "That's it, Sammy, almost there. Make sure to drink it all down; don't want any mess. Yeah, that's right, just like that. Here it comes. Ungh."

As Lucifer's hips twitched up, hand pushing Sam's head down further into his lap, Dean saw red. He broke free of Castiel's grasp, ready to pound Lucifer into the ground. Instead, he found himself on the ground, landing chest first in the artificial turf, Castiel's arms wrapped around his legs.

"Dean, no! Violence is punishable by death or banishment, whatever the reason," Cas cautioned. "Besides, unless what they're doing is against your brother's will, it's not illegal no matter how much you may disagree with their relationship."

"Relationship? Sammy's a fucking kid, and Lucifer's over a century old. He's taking advantage of my little brother!" Dean spat, thankful that he was staring at the turf in front of his nose instead of his brother, who he heard sit up. He tried not to imagine Sam wiping a sleeve across his mouth as he heard Lucifer zip up and murmur something to Sam too low for Dean to make out.

"Dean? What the hell are you doing?" Sam asked, sounding confused.

"Me? What the hell are _you_ doing?" Dean retorted, getting to his feet as Castiel released his legs.

"Spending time with my boyfriend."

" _Boy_ friend? That guy hasn't been a boy in a very, very, _very_ long time," Dean pointed out.

"Hey, Sammy-boy, look. It's been fun and all, but if your family's against our relationship we should just end this. Far be it from me to cause any family drama," Lucifer drawled as Dean's fingers itched to rip the smirk off his face.

"What? No! I'm old enough to take the challenge, I'm old enough to make my own decisions. You have no say in who I date, Dean. You're not my father," Sam retorted, throwing his arms around Lucifer and burying his face against his chest.

"You still haven't passed your challenge yet; you're not a legal adult," Dean pointed out.

"Doesn't matter; the law says once I'm old enough to take the challenges I'm old enough to make my own life decisions," Sam retorted.

"Don't quote that shit at me. Damn, if you put as much effort into your creative writing as you seem to be putting into law you'd have passed your challenge already. Sure you don't want to switch careers?" Dean growled.

"Hey, I'm tops in creative writing and if I hadn't choked the first two times, I would've passed already. I just need to avoid getting stage fright and I'll be fine," Sam countered.

"Look, this is all fun and good and stuff, but your arguing is interrupting my afterglow. Mind skedaddling so I can get back to enjoying myself?" Lucifer interjected, giving Sam a firm pat on the ass, then pushing him toward his older brother. "Meg?" he added, raising an eyebrow at the girl kneeling next to him, left hand curling into her hair and yanking it down to lift her listless gaze to meet his own. With his other hand, he unfastened his jeans again, pulling out his half-erect cock and giving it a few light smacks to bring it to attention. Mechanically, the girl stood and straddled the older man's lap, short skirt settling over and around Lucifer's thighs as she lowered herself onto his length and began riding him.

"What the fuck, man?" Dean spat, angry on his brother's behalf. He didn't like the asshole one bit, but liked his dismissive attitude toward Sam, his supposed boyfriend, even less.

"Dean, don't worry about it," Sam said, pushing his older brother away from the couch and toward the street. "Hey, Cas," he added to Gabriel's brother who followed them. "Why are you here?"

"Your brother came looking for you as I was going to look for Gabriel. It made sense to search together," Cas replied in his low, raspy, inflectionless voice.

"Gabriel? He's missing? Is he-"

"He's fine, Sammy. Found him in The Garden and he told us you were with Lucifer. Balthazar took him home and Castiel and I came to find you," Dean answered, easing the fear he saw on his little brother's face.

Sam's relief was palpable as they headed for the nearest TCs, which was across from the next lounge to the north of them.

"Why were you so worried? Has someone been threatening Gabriel?" Cas asked, concern evident in his voice.

"That... no, I just, I thought he was going home," Sam evaded.

"He said he was waiting for you, like he always does," Cas replied, watching Sam's reactions suspiciously.

"And all those times you said you were hanging out with Gabriel, you were really spending time with... Lucifer?" Dean added, unable to suppress a shudder at the creepy guy's name.

"Not all the times," Sam mumbled.

"Right, just a couple times a week, every week for the past two years?" Sam's guilty expression was all the answer Dean needed. "And what was up with the chick? He just tosses you aside and moves on to the next kid?"

Sam flinched. "He wasn't breaking things off with me, just saying what you wanted to hear. And he messes around all the time."

"What? Then why the fuck are you even with him?" Dean demanded.

"It's complicated," Sam deflected.

"Then un-complicate it. Because from what I've seen the guy doesn't even deserve to breath the same air as you, let alone deserve to have you. Is he threatening you?" Dean asked.

"He's not threatening me," Sam asserted.

"Is he threatening Gabriel?" Cas asked as they reached the TCs.

Sam turned a startled gaze on his best friend's brother, then stepped into a Turbo Chair and sped off.

"Well, that wasn't suspicious, _at all_ ," Dean frowned.

"It was very suspicious," Cas replied, brows furrowed.

"I was being sarcastic," Dean sighed.

"Oh, right. Sorry. Anyway, Sam's very protective; I think he gets that from you. A threat to Gabriel, or to you, would make him compliant if he had no way to neutralize the threat. I am sorry for Lucifer's behavior. He... I suppose you could say he wasn't raised right. I'll speak with Michael about him tonight. He can usually get Luc to listen."

"I'd really appreciate that, Castiel. Not that I want to accuse your brother of blackmailing mine, but if he is... I mean, I'm just worried about Sammy, you know? It'd be one thing if he really was, like... in love or something. But it was obvious Lucifer didn't give two shits about Sammy, and Sam... I know we haven't been as close the past couple years, but he just didn't seem like himself. But you know, you don't have to stick your neck out with your family or anything. I'll keep a closer eye on Sammy from now on; chaperone dates if I have to. Anyway, thanks for coming with me even after we found your brother, Castiel. You didn't have to, and if you hadn't been there to stop me..."

"You were concerned for your younger brother. I can certainly relate. And please, call me Cas. I do plan to speak with Michael about this though. Even if nothing he did was technically illegal, he shouldn't be doing those kinds of thing in public. If Father was a bit more reasonable he'd make laws against... but of course he's not about to make a law he'll just have to break."

"Hey, he made all this. He deserves a bit of leniency when it comes to his habits, right? I mean, the guy's definitely earned a break," Dean shrugged.

"He's pretty much been on break for the past hundred years," Cas pointed out sardonically.

"Maybe so, but still... he's given us immortality. And a safe place to live where food, shelter, and comfort are provided in exchange for a few hours of work. Long as what he built keeps workin' I say let the guy live it up." Dean replied.

Castiel looked thoughtful, but didn't reply. Instead, he stepped into a TC that had pulled up, turned and waved. "I'll see you around," he said quietly before the bubble closed and then he was gone. Dean stared at the place where he'd been for a few moments, thinking what a strange man he was. Then he shrugged and took the next TC home.

 

*****

Next chapter: Missing Details

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any questions about the dome, please feel free to ask (though I won’t reveal any spoilers). Really hoping this story turns out as good as the dream that inspired it. Sometimes I really wish I had a camera in my head hehe. 
> 
> Comments, questions, corrections and suggestions always welcome and encouraged. Reader feedback is a huge encouragement to me and helps me keep going when I get stuck or find myself inching toward those negative depression-induced thoughts (I’m on medication now though, so those thoughts don’t come as often and it’s easier to get away from them when they do). So, yeah, even if you don’t want to leave a comment, kudos are appreciated too :D


	2. Missing Details

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie, an investigative reporter, is tired of her usual, repetitive articles on new cross-breeds in the Zoo or newly bio-engineered plants in the Garden, new tech or bio-chemical advances. None of it has been very new or imaginative since Chuck retired a century ago. That's why, when something starts pinging her intuition, she jumps on it, hoping for a more interesting story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Teen
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** None
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Charlie Bradbury, Fergus ‘Crowley’ MacLeod, Rowena Macleod, Anna Milton-Bradbury
> 
>  **Chapter Tags/warnings:** shadiness, surveillance, tech!Charlie, reporter!Charlie,

_Ok, Charlie, you can do this! They're just cats. You like cats. Ok, maybe they're a bit on the big side... if by 'big' you mean 'maul you to shreds'. But you're not going to be that close to them, and people want to know, deserve to know, when there are new breakthroughs. Right. Like anyone cares what's going on in The Zoo. Hardly anyone even comes... This is getting you nowhere. It's your job, and you've got to fill your 16 hours, so just buck up and do it!_

"So, how about you tell me about this new breakthrough? I mean, I did a bit of preliminary research, so I know ligers have been around for hundreds of years, and females have been able to produce offspring almost since the beginning, so what makes what you’ve done here different?” she asked from the doorway of the breeding center, Chuckle (a small data storing device) transcribing her words onto a document. Even if the huge cats weren’t behind unbreakable glass, it’s not like her 5’5”, slender body would be much of a meal for them. And her bright red hair; bright colors in the wild are often warnings like ‘hey, I’m poisonous, don’t eat me’, so she shouldn’t have had any reason to be afraid. That didn’t stop her from wanting to keep her distance though.

However, the zoologist, Inias, wasn’t having any of that. He grabbed Charlie’s free hand and tugged her right up to the one-way glass in front of the breeding chamber where two very, very large cats were watching over 3 playing cubs. Holo-tech had the enclosure looking like a savannah, with a copse of trees in one corner. “It’s true that ligers have been able to have cubs in the past, but not _liger_ cubs. A female liger could sometimes be bred with either a lion or a tiger, the offspring being then either liliger or tiliger, respectively. But now, thanks to the research we’ve been doing here at The Zoo, we have finally managed to isolate the cause of infertility in the males and reverse it, resulting in what we have here; the first liger cubs ever to have been born to liger parents,” Inias explained, words also transcribed onto Charlie’s device since he’d consented to it before the interview.

“That’s fascinating,” _if by fascinating you mean mind-numbingly boring and probably a little scary._ “What are the implications of this new breakthrough?” Charlie queried.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what can you do with this knowledge? What are the benefits to the residents of Heaven?”

“Oh. Well, um, we can breed more ligers? Err, maybe be able to introduce them as a viable species into the wild. The research should translate into other hybrid species too, like mules, Cama, Beefalo,-“

“That’s great and all, but we don’t use animals for food or labor in the domes. In fact, they aren’t even allowed anywhere other than The Zoo. And introducing them into the wild, wouldn’t that disrupt ecosystems? Not to mention that animals bred in captivity are ill suited to adapt to the wild, right?” Charlie pointed out. Not that she wanted to rain on the guy’s parade, but really, why was he wasting his time breeding hybrids when he could be doing more useful things, like trying to bring back species that went extinct due to human interference such as dodos, elephants, or panda bears, or engineering mosquitos that carry antibodies for animal diseases that will cure the animals when they feed off their blood?

Inias looked ashamed for a moment before his expression hardened into indignation. “Heaven gives us the freedom to enjoy our work. To explore any line of scientific inquiry that interests us. Maybe I don’t have a practical use for my research right now, but all it takes is someone like Chuck to come along and take it in new directions, help my brainchild live up to its potential. That’s why we’ve been given so much freedom. If we all do the best we can at what we do best, we raise the platform on which others can build.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry, that was unprofessional of me. It’s wrong to take my dissatisfaction with my own job out on others. Guess it just seems like no one cares what’s going on in the dome anymore beyond what they, themselves are doing. I’m so sorry, I’m babbling. Anyway, while I may find ligers to be big and scary, they’re also pretty, and your research could be the doorway to the next line of inquiry that leads one of my readers down a new path of discovery,” Charlie replies, chastised by his words. “So, is there anything else you’d like to add for the article?”

“Just that Anthony and Cleopatra, along with the cubs, Ra, Osiris, and Isis, are all healthy and happy and enjoying their family life here at The Zoo. They’ll remain here in the breeding compound for the next year, but visitors are welcomed and encouraged to come see this beautiful miracle of science,” Inias concluded.

“Well, I certainly hope the happy new family brings human families together to come and see how impressive they are. The Zoo is here to remind everyone that the world isn’t limited to concrete, metal, and glass. We live here in Heaven, protected from the outside world, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still a part of it. It’s important to remember the wild, untamed beauty that exists beyond our own little bubble,” Charlie replied in closing before switching the Chuckle off. “Thank you so much for the interview, Inias. And sorry again for going off-script a bit, earlier. I guess I just needed a reminder that everyone’s work is important, even mine. Sometimes it just feels like we’ve all grown complacent here in the dome. Like no one really cares about much of anything. But I’ve never even been outside Heaven so maybe I should spend more time in The Zoo and The Garden; really see how these places connect us to where we came from. Anyway, thanks again. Please don’t forget to send a picture of the happy family for the article.”

“Sure. I’ve just been waiting for a good time to take them. Have to make sure no one might accidentally walk in while the camera’s out; it’s a pain to have to get all the waivers and consent forms signed.”

“Tell me about it. There aren’t many laws in Heaven, but the one banning photography and filming anywhere other than enclosed rooms with no windows, and having to get written consent from anyone in the shot, is the most annoying part of my job,” Charlie sympathized. She took a hesitant step closer to the glass, trying to see the frighteningly big cats as a cute, sweet, happy family. While she didn’t succeed, it still made Inias smile, which was good. They shook hands and Charlie left the breeding center to wander around The Zoo a bit, reminding herself these animals existed, free and wild, beyond the human domes.

People from the east sectors of the dome, those involved in news and entertainment, had slightly different requirements for their work hours. Instead of going by time, Charlie’s required 16 hours were covered by completing 2 articles within specified word lengths. For more involved articles, every extra 250 words earned a credit hour. Not that she could just fill space with flowery prose; that’s what editors were for. They made sure writing was concise and informative, and if their cuts brought the article below the minimum required length, the reporter would have to do more research and rewrite the piece. The nature of employment in the creative fields meant that sometimes work could take much longer than the expected time, but it could also take less. Either way, it was worth it to be doing something she loved. Even if it didn’t always seem important.

Walking around, looking at animals in natural habitats behind impenetrable one-way glass, Charlie let the natural curiosity that made her such a good reporter take over. She was surprised to see artificial rain falling in some of the enclosures; it didn’t rain inside the dome. One even had a thunderstorm, which was fascinating. She hadn’t walked around The Zoo since she was around ten years old, which was about 70 years ago. Back then, she didn’t remember ever having seen rain, though she’d learned about it in the LM. Maybe at the time they hadn’t realized the animals needed or expected rain? Or possibly they did have rain but confined it to nighttime, so it wouldn’t bother the visitors, until someone realized that children of the dome had never seen rain and suggested doing it during the day for the visitors’ edification? Charlie wondered what it would be like to feel the wet drops on her skin. Or to be submerged in water like the aquatic species. Her mother, Gertrude, had always said that was what she missed most from pre-dome life. Swimming, bathing, showering, walking in the rain; things she described as best she could, but that Charlie would never understand the sensations of. Charlie had always thought being pelted by or submerged in water would be uncomfortable; unnatural. But while many of the animals in the habitats where it was raining sought shelter, just as many seemed happy to enjoy the falling drops of water, playing and splashing. However, Charlie wasn’t an animal; give her a quick, dry, bio-cleansing any day. 

As she drifted among the habitats, thoughts wandering, her intuition began tugging at her mind, whispering that something wasn’t right. Surreptitiously, she began watching the people as closely as she watched the animals. There were parents and children of varying genders and non-gender and quite a few obvious pre-domers, discernable by lined faces and greying or white hair. But other than those escorting children or working, there were no grown domers, and few teens or young adults. _Almost_ no other grown domers. What had tugged at her senses was a man who appeared close enough to stasis to be a domer but had a few strands of grey sprinkled throughout his dark hair and beard, so he could have aged to mid-to-late-thirties before the dome. Maybe 3-4 inches taller than Charlie, he wore a tech-age style dark grey suit. And the thing that was most off about him was that, every so often, he would approach one of the teens, murmur something to them, and the kid would head for the exit.

No one else seemed to have taken any notice of the odd behavior. If Charlie’s reporter’s instinct wasn’t so strong she might not have either. By the time she’d managed to discern what was out of place, she realized she’d already seen at least four or five teens sent off to the exit. Was everyone completely oblivious? Not really. More like complacent. There were few laws in Heaven, so people didn’t look for wrong-doing, because what wrong could be done, right? The laws that did exist, other than no violence, were there to protect individual privacy and promote free will, which also subtly encouraged people not to pry into what others were doing. But this, whatever was happening here, was suspicious, and overhearing public conversations wasn’t illegal. Charlie wandered along the enclosure she was pretending to peruse, finding a spot where she could see the man’s lips from the corner of her eyes. Lipreading actually was illegal, but also very hard to prove and considering the punishment for any and all infractions was the choice between death and banishment, the Secs tended to err on the side of caution; no crime without proof. Years ago it had been even easier to eavesdrop; back before the invention of reflectionless glass, she would’ve been able to watch the man’s lips without looking directly at him. But after watching his next interaction Charlie realized it wouldn’t have helped. The kid he bumped into had his back to her, and the man himself was leaning close to keep his voice low and mumbling. Looked like he might even have a pre-dome accent too. Basically, Charlie was barely able to catch anything. She thought she saw him say ‘job’ and possibly ‘W7’, but she hadn’t made out anything else.

Trying to keep her usual sunny smile on her face without it looking artificial, she continued down the enclosure she was supposedly examining. While no one else was likely to take any note of her, the man in the ancient suit was sure to be keeping track of what was going on around him. After all, on the few times Charlie had dared to… bend rules, she’d made sure to look as inconspicuous as everyone else while secretly watching her surroundings like a hawk. She definitely didn’t want the man to realize he’d roused her suspicions. Keeping the same leisurely pace, she finished her tour of The Zoo and exited. Out on the street, she went into the nearest Booth and connected her Chuckle to the computer to upload her interview to her account. The holo emitters in Booths were normally only programmed for bioc, table, sofa or bed; 4 different rooms the Booth could become. But Charlie had an extra room program she’d whipped up and kept hidden on her Chuckle, which she pulled up now; one-way glass walls surrounded her and two chairs appeared in front of the computer. Of course, the outside of the Booths never changed, so it still looked like a big, black cube. But since the inside thought it was 1-way glass Charlie was able to see beyond the walls without anyone the wiser. There wasn’t technically a law against what she was doing, but probably only because it had never occurred to anyone that it could be done. Sliding the computer over to the wall that faced the open square between The Zoo and The Garden, she got a cup of coffee from the synthesizer and started work on her article, watching the square with her peripheral vision.

Daylight hours passed one by one as Charlie watched the teens coming and going. It soon became apparent that the traffic pattern of teens using The Garden was similar to that of The Zoo. They would show up, singly or in pairs, go in, and shortly later, leave. Around 4 hours later, they would return, sometimes leaving again quickly, sometimes staying a while. Charlie didn’t see any clues to where they’d been or what they’d been doing, though she did note that the last time they left whichever facility they were at, they seemed different; happier, more lively. She also took note of the fact that her sister’s partner, Balthazar, entered The Zoo with his little brother, Castiel, and another young man Charlie didn’t know. A short time later, Castiel and the young man dashed to the TCs and took off. Not long after, Balthazar left too, accompanied by a teenager who she thought might be one of his Shurley siblings. Interesting info, but probably not related to her current investigation. 

By the time the guy in the tech-age suit emerged, Charlie had finished her article, complete with info from her preliminary research, the interview, and an overview of the rest of The Zoo, including the fact that falling rain could be seen there. Quickly transferring her finished work to the News Network, Charlie watched the man go to the TCs directly across the square from her, affording a clear view of his mouth when he gave the Chair his destination: E7, something. She couldn’t make out the specific station but at least she had a sector. Then the only question was whether she should follow or not. Because if the guy caught her tailing him and whatever he was up to was illegal, he’d kill her. No reason not to when the punishment was the same for murder as for whatever she might report him for. On the other hand, if his shady activity wasn’t actually illegal and he caught her following, he’d just be more cautious, and she’d never figure out what was going on. In which case her curiosity might kill her.

Besides, for all she knew, the guy could just be going home. Which she should probably be doing herself. Maybe the best course of action was to find out who the guy was. Taking a TC to her own sector, E4, Charlie synthed up some dinner at home, then set about the arduous task of trying to put a name to a face. Thanks to the stupid photo laws, she didn’t have a picture of him. However, she _might_ have found an old, pre-dome program in a forgotten data-base that had been used for computer-generated police sketches. It wasn’t even illegal either. Yet. She had saved up many credit hours to get a top of the line portable computer which was where she kept legally ambiguous programs she’d uncovered or created herself. Made it easier for her to keep the existence of such programs from the attention of the Secs, who might outlaw them. 

After an hour, she had a decent composite picture of the mystery man, then it was just a matter of running her facial recognition program. News articles and broadcasts were available to everyone, and Charlie kept Portable Data Storages containing everything that had been reported since the birth of the dome, one even dedicated to what she could find from before the dome. Pulling out the one that contained information specific to Heaven for the first hundred years, she connected it to the portable and set the program to searching through pictures, oldest to newest. She’d read and watched all the news every day since she was three and didn’t remember ever having seen the man before, so he probably kept himself out of the news. But if he was a pre-domer, he would have been in the news whenever he entered the dome; back then, it was standard practice to report whenever anyone joined the community. 

After the first fifty years though, Chuck had stopped allowing immigrants. For one, the dome was smaller back then, and overcrowding was becoming a concern since few people died and even with the two-kid rule the population nearly doubled every generation. The second reason was that many other domes had been created by then; most of the human population lived in domes. And since almost all of the other domes had adopted the ‘death or banishment’ punishment for crimes, there was a good chance that the few people still requesting entrance into a dome were ones that had been evicted from other domes. That being the case, there was a good probability that the person she was looking for would be found within the first fifty years. Unless, of course, he was a domer who had reached stasis at the older end of the range. Those born in the dome were only in the news if they wanted to be, and even then, they rarely allowed a picture to go with the name.

All she could do was let the program run and hope she got lucky. If not, there were other ways she could try. Like contacting her older sister. Anna was a Sec in SS-A, but not Charlie’s favorite person in the dome. She was nice enough, of course, but a bit of a… glory hog? There were many different branches within the SS; law review, enforcement, detective, secretarial, protection, warning. Though Anna had chosen to be a detective, she did very little actual sleuthing. She didn’t want to look for bad, she wanted to enjoy the good. These days, she was partnered with Captain Rozen-Novak whose skill at his job made up for her lack. Anna’s contribution to the partnership amounted to handling the press, which she was good at and enjoyed. Didn’t really make her a good source though, since she rarely knew what was going on until after it was over. The captain, however, he was good. Balthazar had always encouraged Charlie’s natural curiosity and was like an older brother or uncle to her, he and Anna having been work partners since before she was born. Charlie suspected he already knew something was going on. Maybe that was why he’d been at The Garden today. She could try seeing what he knew, sharing what little she’d gleaned. The problem with that was, just like a real older brother, Balthazar was a bit overprotective, and would almost certainly tell her to stop nosing around and leave the investigating to him. His influence was the reason she was a reporter instead of a detective. Not that sec work was ever even dangerous anymore. But he’d insisted, better safe than sorry. There was no way she was handing this over to him before she even knew what it was. Once she’d done some legwork, figured out what was up and investigated as far as she could go, then she’d pass off what she had to him. Not before.

Charlie was getting ready for sleep when the portable chimed, indicating her search had found a match. Going to the sofa, she folded her legs up under her as she sat to read what the article on the screen had to say. Pictured beside the print was the mystery guy, standing next to a taller, red-headed woman whose arm was around his shoulder. The article read: “New resident Fergus ‘Crowley’ MacLeod joins his mother, Rowena MacLeod, here in Heaven. Long-time resident Rowena is head of psychological research at The Institute. Her son Crowley (as he prefers to be called), was in corporate management on the outside. Here in heaven, he has earned a job in work distribution, and plans to do research for the Museum of History in his spare time. Chuck Shurley says he is glad to reunite this family because he believes families should be together. He encourages residents who still have relatives on the outside to bring them into the bounty of Heaven; the dome welcomes them!” Fergus ‘Crowley’ MacLeod. A name was a good start. She piggy-backed her other Heaven-specific PDS, containing recent news, to the first 100 years, then set her word recognition to look through all 120 years of news, giving her all mentions of ‘MacLeod’. This would also flag news on the mother, but she didn’t know if articles would name him as Fergus or Crowley. Since this search would take much longer, Charlie went to her sleeper, pleased with the progress she was making.

 

*****

Next Chapter: Missing Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something that probably won’t come up in the story, which you may find curious, is the lack of cell phones. Leaving messages or doing live chats via computer probably seems a bit backward for a futuristic dome, right? Chuck’s reasoning was that the waves caused by wireless technology were harmful and unnatural to the human body. So, while there are still wireless communications and broadcasts outside, the domes themselves are shielded from them, though each has an external receiving unit that collects wireless data and sends it into the dome via cables. Personally, I think Chuck’s real reason was that he got tired of his wife calling his cell-phone all the time to ask when he’d be home or if he could pick something up on his way back. Of course, the fact that she always called when he was in the middle of getting laid, that wasn’t intentional on Naomi’s part, at all. Right? Right. So, for whatever reason you choose to go with, there’s no wireless communication in the dome. And there are few laws, and adults don’t have traces, and cameras are not allowed to be used anywhere other than windowless rooms and only with consent of the subjects; Chuck’s all about freedom, man :D
> 
> Another thing, which I should have mentioned last chapter, is that this fic will have less sex than my usual stories. Because it focuses a lot more on the story part. There will eventually be scenes with all three of the main couples, and on the way, there may be other, shorter scenes with other pairings. But if you’re looking for hot and heavy in every chapter, I’d recommend trying Heavenly Body, Blunt to the Point of Love, or my original fic, Of Demons and Men (chapter 2: Of Demons and Dances, is my personal favorite)
> 
> i'm planning to add chapters to this once per week, either on Monday or Thursday but then, i'm horrible at planning, so we'll see hehe. as always, comments, questions, suggestions and corrections encouraged and greatly appreciated :D


	3. Missing Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Challenge day for those going into entertainment arts, and Sam and Gabriel are ready to pass this time. Or at least they would be, if Gabriel wasn't missing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Mature
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** none
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Dean Winchester, Castiel Novak, Sam Winchester, Gabriel Shurley, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Lucifer Shurley, Meg, Alastair, Naomi Shurley
> 
>  **Chapter Tags/warnings:** abduction, allusions to torture, non-consensual drug use, mind tampering, use of sedatives, mental torture

“Dean, I’m not a kid. You don’t have to walk me to school,” Sam complained.

“Ok, one, you are a kid. And B, you’re not going to the LM, you’re going to your challenge, and I’m gonna make sure you get there safely.”

“Oh, come on, Dean, this is Heaven, what do you think is going to happen to me?” 

“Oh, I don’t know Sam, maybe whatever happened the last two times?” Dean pointed out.

“Dean, the only thing that happened the last two times was me. I choked. There’s a huge difference between writing fiction and reading it in front of a stadium full of people. This time, I’ve got a plan to avoid the nerves. I’m going to focus on Gabriel, pretend it’s just him and me practicing,” Sam asserted.

“And it had nothing to do with your ‘boyfriend’, right?” Dean groused. He’d had nightmares all night about Sam’s head in Lucifer’s lap.

Sam’s brows furrowed. “Of course not. I didn’t even see Luc those days, or the days before. Like I said, it was just nerves from being in front of a crowd.”

“You saw him last night. Even though you said you’d be home early, you were out with him anyway. And you were out late the nights before your other two challenges too,” Dean pointed out.

“I was?” Sam looked confused, trying to remember. “I was. Gabriel and I were practicing.”

“You weren’t practicing last night.”

“I… I thought spending time with my boyfriend would calm my nerves,” Sam replied, confusion giving way to what sounded like a well-rehearsed response.

“Uh-huh. Look, Sam, I know I can’t make your choices for you, but I gotta say, if you’re gonna date someone, it should be because you care for each other. And from what I saw last night, there’s none of that between you and … _him_. You’re too good for him. I’m not telling you to break up or anything; like I said, that’s your decision. All I’m asking is that you think about what you get out of the relationship, and what he gets, and make sure it’s what you want,” Dean said cautiously, not wanting to upset his brother, especially right before his challenge. He just couldn’t help worrying. Sam was obviously being used, and Dean hated it. They arrived at the TCs, and Sam took a chair to Northaven, where they were supposed to pick up Gabriel from his house. Dean wished his brother would stop using transport to avoid conversations. Sighing, Dean took the next TC, only catching up with Sam at the Shurley’s door.

“Sam?” Cas looked confused when he opened the door.

Sam blinked, confused by Cas’s confusion. “Yeah, I’m here to pick up Gabriel.”

“He left an hour ago. Gabe said he was supposed to pick you up at your house. Dang it, I _knew_ I should have insisted on walking him.” Cas frowned, anger and worry warring in the stormy blue of his eyes.

“Maybe he went to the challenge ring early?” Dean suggested, though he doubted it. “Are your other brothers home? Maybe he said something to one of them?”

“No. Michael and Zar are working in Center today, and Luc left shortly before Gabe. And of course, Naomi’s at work and Father’s out. We should head to Center, see if we can find Gabe or Zar,” Cas said, stepping outside and closing the door behind him.

“Sam?” Dean said, noticing how quiet his brother had gone. Sam’s eyes were wide with fear, and he didn’t answer, just turned and ran for the TCs. “Sam! Wait!” Dean yelled, running after him. Unfortunately, even at 16 his younger brother was already taller, his longer legs giving him an advantage on speed. Dean was running full out and losing ground when Cas’s lean body sped past him, eventually catching up to and stopping Sam by wrapping his arms around the taller boy, locking his hands on his own wrists, and pulling back with all his strength. “Sam,” Dean panted when he caught up. “Calm down. Talk to me. What’s going on.”

Sam shook his head vehemently, struggling against Castiel’s hold a bit before sagging in defeat. “I can’t- I have to- Please, let me go!”

“Not until you talk to us,” Cas insisted.

“I can’t! He’ll- I just can’t, ok!”

“Sam, has Luc done something to Gabe?” Cas asked.

“I… I don’t know. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know! I just have to go to him,” Sam moaned.

“Why?” Cas pressed.

“I don’t know. I really, really don’t know, I just have to go,” Sam cried, breaking down in tears like Dean hadn’t seen in years. “Please, please, you _have to let me go_!

Castiel looked at Dean for direction. Sighing, Dean scrubbed a hand through his short hair. “Sam, where do you have to go? Do you know where Gabe is?”

Sam’s sobs grew louder. “I don’t know. I don’t know, I just have to go.”

“How can you go there if you don’t know where you’re going?” Dean asked, trying for gently but coming out gruffly.

“I don’t know. If I go, I’ll know, but I don’t know, I won’t know until I go. I… Hurts. My head hurts. Dean, it hurts. It hurts, please, let me go,” Sam cried, crumpling in Castiel’s grip, nearly dragging the smaller man to the ground.

“Dean, can you hold him?” Cas asked curtly.

“I, yeah, I think so. Doesn’t look like he’s in any shape to go anywhere,” Dean replied.

“Don’t be fooled. He may be in pain, but he’s still trying to get away with everything he’s got.”

“Right. Ok, right then, I got this,” Dean said, pulling Sam’s wrists behind his back and pressing a knee into his brother’s spine over his center of gravity, keeping him pinned, stomach down, on the ground. The move had worked on Dad the few times he’d been too violent and Dean had needed to immobilize him.

“I’ll be right back,” Cas said, dashing to the nearest Booth and coming back a minute later with a syringe. 

“What is that?” Dean asked warily.

“It won’t hurt him, just knock him out. It’ll stop the pain, and then we can take him to Naomi. There’s obviously something wrong, and Naomi can determine whether it’s chemical or psychological,” Cas informed.

“My brother is not crazy,” Dean protested.

“I didn’t say he was. Maybe I wasn’t clear. His mind has been tampered with. If it was done chemically, Naomi should be able to counteract it. But if it’s some sort of hypnosis, we’ll have to call Rowena MacLeod in; she’s the best psychological researcher in the dome. Either way, we’ll get him sorted out in time for his challenge.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely. I’m also fairly certain it’s chemical and Naomi will be the one to correct it. Help me get him to The Institute. Then, if you could, please go to Center and find Balthazar. He should be able to get their times changed so they can go last, and then, if you don’t mind, please help him find my little brother. I’ll stay with Sam and make sure he gets sorted out, but I need to know Gabriel is safe. Please?”

“Yeah, sure. If you can help Sam get better, I swear I’ll find Gabriel for you, Castiel.”

“Please, call me Cas.”

 

*****

 

“Balthazar!” Dean shouted, spotting the older man near the Challenge Ring.

“Oh, Dean, wasn’t it? Your brother’s taking the challenge today, right?” Zar called back, moving to meet up with Dean.

“Hopefully, but we’ve got a problem. Gabriel’s missing, and someone’s messed with Sam’s head. Castiel asked me to find you so we can look for Gabe together, and he said you could push their challenge times to the end of the day?”

“Missing? Again? Well, I may not have accepted father’s name, but it’s becoming more and more convenient that I joined his family,” Balthazar stated in his light, pre-dome accent. He went to the sign-in desk and palmed the computer, bringing up the scheduled Challenge times and moving Sam Winchester and Gabriel Shurley to the bottom of the list, using the override afforded by his position and family. Then he ran a trace on Gabriel which had him frowning at the computer.

“What’s wrong?” Dean asked, tense as an elevator’s cable.

“He’s not coming up. According to the computer he’s not in the dome. Yet the computer also says he’s not left the dome. Curiouser and curiouser.”

“How can he not be here but not have left? Is there somewhere the trace doesn’t work?” Dean questioned.

“Not that I’m aware of. The thing is, this isn’t the first time it’s happened. Oh, not with Gabriel, but other teens. They go off the grid for a while, then turn up in The Garden or The Zoo. I’ve had a number of subordinates trying to find where they could be going, but none have come up with an answer,” Zar replied.

“We have to do something. Cas is worried sick about Gabriel. And even if Sam- when Sam gets better in time for his challenge, he’ll choke again without Gabe there. What about Lucifer? I know he doesn’t have the trace, but is there some way to find him? The guy that was there is too old, but maybe the girl he was hanging with, Meg, maybe she has the trace?” Dean suggests.

“Cute little thing, dark curly hair?”

“Yeah. She was with him yesterday.”

“No go. She passed her challenge in January. But that does give me another idea. I need my office. Let’s go.”

Dean wasn’t quite keeping up with the thought train, but when Balthazar swiftly strode away he followed, taking a TC to SS-A. Not bothering with the palm reader, he followed the older man through the door, past the desk, and down the hall to his office. “What are you going to do?” he finally found time to ask.

Balthazar was busy pulling up a holo-map of Heaven and tapping commands into the computer, talking distractedly as he went. “The only ones who have the trace are those who’ve not yet passed their challenge, right? But we can’t trace the kids that are missing because they don’t show up as being in the dome. So, what if we find a kid who’s about to disappear and watch where they go?”

“Oh, sure, that simple. Except for the part where how the hell do you know if someone’s about to disappear?” Dean pointed out.

“We don’t. Well, not for certain, anyway. But, the only children who’ve gone missing have been between the ages of 14 and 18. And right now, children of those ages should be at either Center, the LM, The Zoo, The Garden, or their home. So, all I need to do, is track the teens not in one of those places and see where they go. Ok, the ones on the move will show as green dots. Take that side,” Zar said, waving toward the left of the map, “and I’ll check here. Watch any green dots and tell me if and where they disappear.”

“On it.” Dean responded, examining the map closely. There were three dots; one moving toward a TCs, two moving away from other TC stations. All three were in the west sectors, none in north or south. “I’ve got one in W9, one about to leave W8, and one in W6. Wait, the one in W6 just disappeared.”

“Where were they when they disappeared?”

“Uh… W6P8. Could there be a tunnel there leading outside the dome?”

“Unlikely. But, if there is, then there’s one in E7P3 too. And someone just appeared in E9P8,” Balthazar replied piqued curiosity evident in his voice.

“Yesterday, we found Lucifer in a park too. E8P8, I think. Oh, just had another one appear in W8P3. And the one that was in W9 just disappeared, P3,” Dean reported.

“Alright, then, we’ll give it ten more minutes, record where we see activity, and compare notes.”

Ten minutes later, they’d seen activity in the 3rd and 8th parks of almost every east and west outer sector. “It looks like they’re using those parks for something. Do we go search for tunnels or…?” Dean asked.

“Really, I know many secs have grown complacent, but we’re not completely clueless. We’d have noticed someone digging tunnels. I have had patrols on alert to report anything abnormal to me,” Balthazar replied.

“And yet you didn’t know teenagers were disappearing from the dome,” Dean pointed out.

“Actually, I did know that, I just didn’t know where, why, or how it was happening. That aside, I think the more prudent action to take would be checking E6P3 and W7P8. There must be a reason those are the only two not showing any teen activity. Tell me, yesterday, when you found Lucifer, was there anyone else around?”

“Thin, creepy guy, and that Meg girl. And Sammy, of course,” Dean added with a shudder at the memory.

“Yes, yes. I meant besides them. Any teenagers about?” Zar clarified.

“Oh. No, there was hardly anyone else around. Might’a seen one or two guys go down the street, but no kids.”

“So it’s likely he’ll be at one of the parks not being used. Let’s go,” Balthazar said, heading for the door.

“Should we split up?” Dean asked, hurrying behind.

“No offense, but you’re not a sec. There’s no way I’m letting you go off by yourself. Come on, we’ll check west first.”

“But yesterday he was in the east.”

“And we know today he is not at the same park, so if I know Lucifer, he’d be as far away from where you found him yesterday as possible.”

“You’re the sec,” Dean conceded.

“And the half-brother,” Zar pointed out.

“Right. W7P8 it is. Meet you there.”

 

*****

 

“Is this legal?” Dean asked. From the TCs, they had gone around the block, then approached the Booth across from the park via the north side of the street. Thanks to the pie shaped blocks in the circular dome, they were hidden from view the whole way. Once inside the booth, Balthazar had sworn Dean to secrecy, then done something with the computer and the walls had gone transparent, hence the question.

“There’s no law against it,” Zar shrugged, pulling a chair over where he could get a good view of the park. Dean slid the other chair closer to join him.

“I don’t know, man, doesn’t seem right for you secs to have these kinds of cheats,” Dean mused.

“Yes, well, ‘we secs’ don’t have this tech, only myself and the one who invented it. And neither of us would abuse it. I haven’t even told Michael about it because he, most certainly, would make it standard tech for every sec in every dome. I am firmly in agreement with Chuck’s policy of free will and privacy. Provided one doesn’t use said freedoms to take away those of another. Now then, that’s Lucifer there. Looks like he’s alone.”

“If the skinny guy is in the chair, the back’s too high for us to see him from here. The girl’s not where she was yesterday though. And if Gabriel’s… fuck. No, he wouldn’t do that to his brother, right?”

“Do what?” Zar asked.

“Cas didn’t tell you?”

“He just said you found Sam with Luc and took him home.”

“Oh. When we found them… Shit, I can’t even say it,” Dean growled.

“Ah. No need. I understand. And no, I don’t think Luc would do anything sexual with Gabe. They were quite close when Gabriel was little, but stopped spending time together years ago. No, I think it more likely he’d have Gabe stashed somewhere secure, nearby. Assuming he had anything to do with the disappearance, which, my instinct tells me, he did. I think for now, we watch. See if he tips his hand,” Balthazar concluded.

They watched. And waited. And watched. Balthazar was motionless, concentrating on his older half-brother, not even showing surprise when Meg’s tousled head popped up beside Lucifer. Dean was not. He fidgeted anxiously, jumping up from the chair after five minutes and pacing, though he still kept glancing frequently at the eldest Shurley boy, wondering how he could just sit there doing nothing, even after Meg had finished… whatever, and sat up beside him. After fifteen minutes or so, a man came down the street, talked with Lucifer for a few minutes, then left, heading back the way he had come. A few minutes later, a woman approached, spoke a bit longer, then left. Dean went to the computer and sent a message to Castiel Novak, letting him know they’d found Lucifer and were watching him, then asking for an update on Sam. Twenty minutes later, he received a reply, stating that Naomi had found that the cause of whatever tampering had been done was chemical, and she was currently treating him. Cas assured Dean that Naomi would have him back to himself within an hour or two, in plenty of time for his challenge, and asked to be informed when they found Gabe.

“Alastair. Hey, is this the guy who was with Luc yesterday?” Balthazar asked, drawing Dean away from the computer.

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“He came from that Booth,” Zar said, pointing toward one of the black cubes that surrounded the park on three sides. “I would love to know what he was doing in there.”

“How quickly can you make it to the back of that building? If you can get there without being seen, I can make a distraction long enough for you to get to the booth,” Dean suggested.

“Should be able to make it in four minutes if I move quickly. Be careful though, that Alastair… he’s a nasty one.”

 

*****

 

“…not happy about this, Alastair,” Lucifer said in a soft voice full of menace.

“You told me to treat him nice, and I have been. _Very_ nice,” the skinny man replied in a somewhat nasal voice that drew goosebumps from Dean’s skin.

“I meant normal-people nice, not _your_ brand of nice,” Lucifer sneered.

“Then maybe you should have been more specific.”

“Lucifer! Where is he!” Dean yelled, coming around the opposite side of the seating from where Balthazar was rushing to the Booth Alastair had been in.

“Why, whatever do you mean, Dean?” Luc drawled.

“You know damn well what I mean! Where’s Sam? What did you do to him?” Dean retorted, though he knew exactly where his brother was.

“Isn’t he supposed to be taking his challenge today? Did you check Center?” Lucifer shrugged, relaxing and putting his arms along the back of the sofa, much like he had yesterday when Sam’s head had been in his lap.

Dean barely managed to keep hold of himself. “There’s no one here to stop me today. I’ll beat it out of you if necessary. Where. Is. Sam?”

“Such a temper you have. Unfortunately, I honestly have no idea where he is. I was hoping he’d come to see me with good news about his challenge, but he hasn’t been here.”

“He said he had to go to ‘him’. I know he meant you.”

“So, you’re saying he ran away from you?” Lucifer asked, sounding pleased at the thought.

Dean lunged, ready to wipe the smirk off that smug face. But he was brought up short almost immediately, arms pinned behind his back in a painful hold.

“Silly, silly boy. All that rage, but you have no idea how to harness it. The things you could do with it. I could teach you. I can just tell, you’d take to it even better than Meg.” Alastair’s whispery, nasally voice was cold against Dean’s ear, sending chills of apprehension through him.

“Alastair,” Lucifer warned.

“I know. Family and friends of your precious Sam are off limits. Which reminds me, I have something to which I must attend. If things are alright here?”

“We’ll be fine,” Luc replied. “I’m sure Dean is thankful for your intervention, and has remembered that violence is a punishable offense. Right, Dean?”

“Yeah, we’re _fine_ ,” Dean grumbled, jerking his arms free the minute Alastair’s grip loosened.

“It was good to see you again, Dean. I _do_ hope we’ll have the opportunity to become _great friends _in the future,” the skinny man said in parting, clapping a hand firmly on Dean’s shoulder; the one that had been wrenched the hardest.__

__“Don’t count on it,” Dean grumbled under his breath as his attention returned to the man on the sofa. “Lucifer, stay away from Sam. I mean it. If you ever see him again, send him straight home. Believe me, you don’t want to provoke me any more than you already have.”_ _

__“Shame. I believe you. Next time I see him, I’ll send him home,” Lucifer promised, almost too easily._ _

__“You’d better,” Dean warned in parting, stalking away. He headed for the TCs, where he was supposed to meet Balthazar. After a few minutes, the sec arrived, a body slung over his shoulder. “Oh, no. Is he-“_ _

__“He’ll be fine,” Zar assured. “When I got into the Booth, he was writhing on the floor, senseless with pain. I couldn’t find any physical cause, so I synthed a tranquilizer then got him out as quickly as I was able. Good job on the distraction. Meet you at The Institute.”_ _

__Dean nodded as Balthazar squeezed into a TC with Gabriel, then followed after them as soon as another chair arrived._ _

__

__*****_ _

__

__Sam jumped up from his chair in the lobby when Naomi came out of the back looking exhausted, the lines on her face more pronounced. “How is he?”_ _

__“Don’t worry, Sam, there wasn’t much more damage than what you had. I’ve removed the unknown chemical from his body and corrected the mental tampering, though he may have a few more aftereffects than you. Both of you had multiple injection marks, though neither you nor Gabe remembered being injected. I would recommend you be extra vigilant. Don’t go anywhere alone, and don’t let anyone bump into you,” Naomi informed her son’s concerned friend._ _

__“We’ll keep them safe,” Dean said as he and Cas moved closer, Dean putting a protective hand on his brother’s shoulder._ _

__“Naomi, earlier you said Sam hadn’t been injected today, right?” Cas asked._ _

__“That is correct. There was the same chemical as in Gabriel, but only residual amounts, and none of his injection sites looked fresh.”_ _

__“So his episode this morning was most likely a pre-programmed response to a specific trigger?” Cas continued._ _

__“Most likely, yes,” Naomi said, beaming with pride at her step-son as though she were in some way responsible for his intelligence._ _

__“Could there still be triggered responses buried in their psyches?” he pressed, ignoring the pride since he didn’t need her approval, though she was the only mother he’d ever known._ _

__Naomi hesitated. “It is possible. I removed everything I could find, but there is no guarantee that I found everything.”_ _

__“What about me?” Cas asked quietly. Dean and Sam looked at him curiously._ _

__“That was years ago, Castiel. If there had been any triggers I would think they would have revealed themselves by now. Besides, the chemical used hadn’t been the same. This one was much more complex. I am fairly certain the one used on you would not have been able to induce programming beyond when the drug was actively in your system,” Naomi replied._ _

__“Cas? You were drugged?” Sam asked._ _

__“It was a long time ago,” Cas shrugged. “I realized I remembered doing things that I knew I didn’t do, so I went to Naomi for help.”_ _

__“And I got him sorted out, just like I did for you and Gabe. Speaking of, I should see if he’s rested enough to go. We don’t want either of you to fail your challenge by forfeit.”_ _

__They watched her hurry off, then Sam turned to Cas. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” he asked._ _

__“I was embarrassed. And Naomi thought it was an isolated incident, so we agreed to keep it to ourselves while she researched the chemical,” Cas replied. “Sam, you should go over your challenge presentation with your brother; make sure you’re ready. When Gabe comes out we’ll make sure his project is intact and ready to be played for his challenge, then we can all go to Center together. Hopefully, there won’t be any more problems.” There weren’t. Sam and Gabriel made it with time to spare, and both finally passed their challenge, their 20 hour equivalent work weeks set to start the first of next month._ _

__

__*****_ _

__

__Next chapter: Missing Pitfalls_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s a day late. I was hoping I could get a chapter or two ahead so I could keep up a schedule updating two (very) different fics per week, but I haven’t gotten ahead yet. Gonna keep trying though! Comments are great encouragement to me, and always very much appreciated :D So if you have any comments, questions, suggestions, corrections, or just want to say hi, feel free :D


	4. Missing Pitfalls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie is reporting on Challenge Day. At least, that was the plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Explicit
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Charlie Bradbury/Meg (CharM)
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Charlie Bradbury, Crowley MacLeod, Lucifer Shurley, Alastair Rolston, Meg Masters, Kevin Tran (mentioned)
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** lesbian sex (and there’s important story content woven into the sex; feel free to just skim through for the non-sex parts if the hot girl on girl stuff is too graphic for you), mention of sex not remembered ‘cause drugs, sex toy, mutual orgasms, memory tampering

Challenge day was always exciting. Or at least, there was always an excited air among the challengers and family there to watch. Having reported on so many over the years, the atmosphere kind of washed over Charlie. Still, she had to report, so she tried to engage her interest by predicting which challengers would pass and which wouldn’t. Generally, she tended to be right. Or at least, she used to be. The past ten years or so, Charlie had seen many fail who she’d thought would pass. In fact, she’d started tracking the success/fail rate going back the past seventy years. And up until ten years ago, the average age at passing was seventeen to eighteen. Shifting more toward seventeen over the years. Now it was nineteen to twenty. Sure, trends and patterns could change over time, but there was usually a discernable cause for such shifts. Differences in schooling or gene pools or base societal knowledge. But what differences there were should be leading the age of passing to go down, not up. And yet-

Charlie was pulled from her musings when she caught something familiar from the corner of her eye. She turned to look, but it was gone. Even so, she was certain the glimpse had been of Crowley MacLeod. Or rather, of his antiquated suit. Sure, plenty of domers liked jeans and t-shirts which originated in the tech era; they were comfortable. But tech era suits were just… ridiculous. And for someone who seemed to be up to something shady, they kinda stood out. Scanning the crowds quickly, Charlie saw the suit going around a corner and followed after.

This type of surveillance was always a pain because, hello, red hair. Not exactly inconspicuous, right? But there wasn’t much choice if she wanted to know what he was up to. So when Crowley stopped outside the TCs, Charlie continued past, heading for the challenger’s entrance across the square and hoping the guy wasn’t going to hop a chair to who knew where. Nothing wrong with a bit of human interest for her article, right? So Charlie took up a position near the door, taking out her Chuckle as she cast a glance toward the TCs through her lashes. Crowley had stopped and was leaning against a wall near the station exit. As she interviewed teens arriving for their challenge, Charlie kept a covert watch on the suited man, who was speaking to some, but not all, of the teens as they exited the TC station. Of the challengers who agreed to be interviewed, the ones Crowley had spoken with were unanimously pessimistic about their chances, saying they didn’t think they’d pass, but there was always next year. Those who hadn’t talked to Crowley were generally more optimistic, nervous but excited. Oh, yeah. There was definitely something going on here.

Four hours later, the Challenge director announced an hour break for lunch and traffic from the ring’s seating began to flood the street. Crowley started to head into the station, then changed his mind abruptly, turning and heading south toward the Training Grounds, forcing Charlie to stop short where she’d started to follow, and turn as though making notes about the empty challenge ring. As soon as he was on the move again, Charlie followed, managing to pick out his antiquated suit jacket easily among the throngs of casually dressed people. At the entrance to the Training Grounds, Crowley looked around suspiciously, then slipped inside. Had he spotted her? Charlie couldn’t be sure and waffled a moment before steeling her nerve and going after him. After the interviews she’d gotten, she was sure Crowley had something to do with the rising age of challenge passage. She had to investigate, to figure out how and why he was interfering, and gather enough evidence for Balthazar to open an official investigation, or, even better, bring charges against the shifty man and whoever might be helping him.

Once inside the Training Grounds, she looked around the lobby. The rectangular training field was walled with windows that showed each of the three courses; beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Charlie had managed to beat the intermediate course last time she’d trained, but that was over a year ago. The thought of moving on to the advanced course was too daunting, and the thought of going back to the intermediate course she’d already passed was too embarrassing. But of course, she spotted the suit in line for the hardest course. Joining the line two people after the dark-haired man in the suit she stayed hidden behind the tall, broad-shouldered woman in front of her, figuring if she could catch up to Crowley while he was in the course, maybe she could help him through, get on his good side.

There was just one small flaw in her plain. It assumed she actually could catch up to him. However, the advanced course turned out to be much more challenging than the intermediate, especially considering she hadn’t trained in the field in over a year. Sure, she’d used sleep mods to keep in shape, but that only kept her body fit and flexible, muscles strong. It didn’t help her reflexes or ability to think under pressure. Not that the course allowed much time for thinking. As soon as she’d entered, the floor was moving in several directions and never stopping. Charlie found herself hopping from square to square, dodging all manner of objects swinging, flying, rolling, bouncing toward her, not to mention pits that opened suddenly beneath her feet, forcing her to grasp for anything she could to stop her fall. Of course it wasn’t actually deadly; Charlie wore a safety harness that repelled objects from her torso, neck and head. _Doesn’t mean you can’t break an arm or leg,_ Charlie’s brain supplied helpfully as she rolled under a huge swinging cylinder, desperate to put enough energy into the move to get past the object while the floor moved backward, trying to pull her back under as she rolled to her feet and sprinted forward, dodging the next object then barely managing to jump forward as the next square gave way beneath her feet.

This was impossible. It was all she could do to keep moving in the right direction. She’d just have to give up on Crowley for today and go back to reporting on the Challenges, assuming she managed to make it out of here before they were over. True, she could give up, and the holo-course would end, leaving a blank room with white floors and windowed walls that she would have to walk back through, people in the hallways staring and laughing, other people on the course having to wait for her to leave and hope they could remember where they’d left off when the course had stopped. Charlie was too weak to face that, and too strong to let herself fail. Jump, roll, hop to a sideways moving floor, then to one moving backward before running along a ramp on the wall, then jumping onto a forward moving floor that rushed her toward a larger pit, running and jumping up to grab the rings hanging above the middle of it, swinging across to land on a hanging platform that tilted one way and the other until she managed to balance herself over the fulcrum bar that supported the platform. Keeping her balance was the only challenge here, and she finally had a moment to catch her breath and take stock. This was the halfway point, and there was nowhere else to pause in the rest of the course. Watching the people ahead of her, she mapped out several routes with different traps and dangers. She also spotted Crowley. Or rather, his suit jacket. The face of the man wearing it was revealed as he swung east and north in a counter-clockwise arc that brought him close enough to jump to the exit, and the face was obviously not Crowley’s. The only similarities were height, build, and hair, along with the damned suit coat. Charlie couldn’t believe she fell for the oldest trick in the book, the switcheroo. Not only had she fallen for it, but the fact that the trick had been used at all meant Crowley was either onto her, or onto someone else following him, and how likely was that?

Well, standing here trying to keep her calves from burning as she struggled to maintain the platform’s balance wasn’t getting her anywhere. She’d just have to go straight to Uncle Zar once she got out and tell him that she’d fucked up and gotten spotted before finding out any more information. That, and hope that Crowley didn’t get away with whatever he was up to just because she’d made a mistake. Mapping out the quickest route to the exit and watching the timing, she struggled though the rest of the obstacles more quickly than the first half, though there was a harrowing moment where she’d landed on her toes just past the edge of a pit, heels on empty air as she windmilled her arms to keep from falling backward into the void. But she managed to recover, getting through the rest of the route she’d memorized and rolling through the door. In the lobby on the other side she collapsed onto a bench, wheezing and sweating and telling herself she’d never do that again.

“Well, that was a pretty little display of talent you put on. To be honest, I didn’t think you’d make it through,” a lilting voice with a pre-dome brogue said as a man sat beside her. Charlie looked over to find Crowley smiling in a very unsettling way. _Shit_.

 

*****

 

“What do you mean, he’s gone?” Lucifer asked quietly, leaning forward on the couch, body tensed like an animal ready to attack, though his elbows were on his knees, fingers steepled and resting against his lower lip.

Meg, kneeling beside him on the couch in her usual subservient position, felt a shiver of fear race through her. Most people got louder when they were angry, but the really sadistic ones like Lucifer, Alastair, and now Meg, were most dangerous when their voices went quiet.

“I mean he’s not there,” Alastair replied just as quietly in his whispery, nasally, raspy voice. He had no fear of Lucifer. Alastair was a psychopath who cared for no one, was unable to feel pain or pleasure, and didn’t care if he lived or died. The only thing he cared about was having people to torture and rape, so he could see and hear their emotions and thereby experience them vicariously. “He couldn’t have gotten out on his own. I left him writhing on the floor, and made sure to lock the door behind me.”

“Sit,” Lucifer breathed. Alastair complied, though he took his time, settling into his customary chair slowly. Lucifer rose and went to the Booth, coming back a bit later. “Balthazar,” he growled, flopping back onto the sofa. He’d obviously checked the surveillance. “I need time to decide how I’m going to spin this when I get home. Meg. Crowley sent a message; seems he’s caught a little mouse sniffing around. Go find out what she knows and who she’s told, then make sure she forgets everything and develops an aversion to our… business activities.”

“Of course, my master,” Meg replied, jumping to her feet and hurrying to the TCs.

“You know, I could-“ Alastair started.

“No way am I rewarding you for fucking up twice with Gabriel. Meg can handle it. Fuck. I bet Dean was acting as a distraction for Balthazar, too. Sammy’s going to pass his challenge and I’m going to lose my favorite toy. I need to work off some aggression; no way I can go home like this. How’s that new kid you were working on, Kevin?”

“He still passes out too quick, but boy, can he scream. I think he’ll do nicely for you.”

“Good. Get him to my Booth, then take over for me here,” Lucifer ordered, tossing a syringe to the thin man. “And don’t use that till you’re in the Booth; I want as much time with him as possible.”

 

*****

 

Charlie didn’t open her eyes, because they were already open. But her awareness of what she was seeing came to her slowly, blurry at first then gradually sharpening. Brown, dark, hooded eyes stared into her, set in a pixie face with porcelain white skin and sensual lips, framed by dark, curly hair. Propped against something soft, Charlie was sitting, legs stretched before her, knees bent, providing a cradle in which the woman sat, rocking against the redhead. Drawing in breath to speak, Charlie found herself stopped by those soft burgundy lips kissing her into silence. The mystery woman nipped her way to Charlie’s ear as her hips thrust down, pushing vibration against the redhead’s clit, soliciting a loud gasp and moan. They must have been at this a while, because it generally took a fair bit of time for Charlie to get this wet, this sensitive.

“Don’t speak. We’re being filmed, so do what I tell you or we’re both in deep shit. Moan again if you understand,” the woman purred, words dripping like poisoned honey from her lips. Charlie gave a cry of pleasure in assent, though it may partially have been due to the way the woman’s hips raised up slowly, then slammed back down and circled, rubbing vibration around her clit. “Name’s Meg. You got dosed, but I slipped you an antidote. If they find out, we’re both worse than dead. Put your hands on my ass and fuck up into me.”

Wondering how she was supposed to ‘fuck up into’ Meg while lacking the necessary equipment, Charlie complied, realizing as she did that there was an artificial penis strapped to her which had a firm center beneath a soft, textured, silicone coating. The vibration was activated by pressure, so that every time she rocked up or Meg pressed down, the artificial organ buzzed against Charlie’s clit and inside Meg. The sensation was so amazing that Charlie forgot it was supposed to be covering a conversation until Meg’s lips were back at her ear.

“Obviously, we can’t talk here. I’ll come to your place next time I have a free night. Now, after we’re done with this,” Meg smirked, circling her hips again to illustrate which ‘this’ she meant and drawing whimpers from the redhead, “I’m gonna have to ask you questions about why you were following Crowley and what you know about him or what he’s been up to. I know,” she said when Charlie put her lips to Meg’s neck, kissing as she drew breath to speak. “You don’t know who Crowley is. That’s because you were given directives while you were dosed, which went into effect when the antidote made the drug wear off. ‘When the drug wears off, you will not remember anything about Crowley or the business he manages. After Meg is done interrogating you, you will return to the Challenge Ring and when the drug wears off, you will think you have been there all day, having fallen asleep at some point which is why you won’t remember a lot of the Challenges. Now, be a good girl, do everything Meg tells you, and answer all her questions.’ Those are the instructions Crowley gave you,” Meg explained as she rode Charlie, murmuring against silky red hair while its owner suckled on Meg’s pert breasts, alternating between the mounds, moaning against warm, porcelain flesh, tonguing around each nipple as her fingers teased the other. 

Part of Charlie’s mind took careful note of Meg’s words and the answers Meg wanted her to give to the questions that would be asked. The rest concentrated on pleasure, both hers and Meg’s. It had been much, much too long since she’d gotten laid, and while the idea that she’d been screwing Meg for who knew how long before she’d come to her senses was way creepy, she had to admit the girl was beyond hot. Not to mention the strap-on vibrator was unlike anything she’d ever used before and it felt frickin’ amazing. When Meg finished talking, her last instruction was for Charlie to fuck her however she wanted as long as they both wound up screaming in pleasure, and _hell yeah_ , Charlie complied. She rolled them over, spreading Meg’s legs wide and to the sides as she fucked into her, pausing every few thrusts to press harder, ramping up the vibration. Meg reached a hand down to finger her own clit and both their voices grew louder as their pleasures escalated. Despite having instructed her to do what she wanted, Meg began giving directions, telling Charlie to speed up, or rotate her hips, or play with her own breasts, or harder, give it to her, ‘that’s right, give it to me baby, you’re so good, thrust deeper and … yeah, like that, alternate quick thrusts and deep presses, yeah, that’s it, get your rhythm, oh, baby, fuck, just like that, keep it up now, don’t stop, don’t stop, you’re getting close, aren’t you, so close, yeah, like that, keep going, gonna come for me baby? That’s it, that’s it, so close, so close, don’t stop now baby, you can do it, almost there, c’mon, take us over the edge now, yes! Yes! Fuck!’ And then they were both crying out, heads thrown back, strap-on thrust deep and vibrating wildly as their bodies shuddered and trembled with pleasure that kept increasing, overwhelming, until suddenly it was too much and Charlie pulled out quickly, collapsing onto the bed and panting, enjoying the aftertremors as Meg’s hand stroked through her hair like Charlie was a pet who’d done very well at learning a new trick.

After a few minutes, Meg sat up fluidly, stretching like a cat, and said, “I’d love to draw this out, but time is short, and we need to get to the real business. So, while the nano-medics do their work, I’m going to ask questions, you’re going to answer. Capiche?”

“Yes,” Charlie answered hoarsely as Meg produced a metal box and pressed a button. The tiny bots were too small to see, but Charlie could feel them healing the bruising on her neck where Meg had sucked a hickey, and between her legs where she’d been a bit too enthusiastic with the pressure on the vibrator. Her voice cleared, as did the twinge in her ankle she’d picked up in the training room earlier. Even her carpel tunnel was healed. All this went on while Charlie gave Meg the answers Meg had given her to give. And wasn’t that a bit of a mind fuck? 

Once questions and healing were finished, Meg instructed her to ‘forget everything that happened within this Booth’, then to go back to the Challenge Ring and wait there until she woke up. Mindful of everything Meg had said both during and after sex, Charlie went back to observe the rest of the challenges, keeping close watch on the time so she could pretend to come to awareness when the drug would normally have worn off. By the time she woke up from her nap, there were only two challengers left, both of them young; fifteen or sixteen, and both likely to pass, by her judgement. Soon as it was over, she headed home. She should have stayed to interview the boys, but the schism in her memories of the day was giving her a headache. On one hand, she definitely remembered falling asleep at the Ring. On the other, she knew she’d been in a Booth with a hot chick, getting laid while Meg murmured all kinds of crazy shit. She didn’t even know who this Crowley guy was. But apparently, she had known something about him. She’d have to look through her place, her computers, and her Chuckle to relearn what she could. Because she may not remember who the guy was or why she’d been following him, but it was obviously important, or he wouldn’t have bothered making her forget, right? That could wait for tomorrow though, when her head wasn’t trying to split the way her memories of the day did.

 

Next chapter: Missing Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I’m… I think the right term these days is pan, both sexual and romantic. When it comes to feelings, gender or sex is irrelevant, and when it comes to sex, if it feels good and everyone enjoys themselves, what does sex or gender matter beyond the logistics of what gets put where? You do you, and all that. Of course, I realize that everyone has their own views on sex which aren’t necessarily the same as mine, so my apologies if lesbian or heterosexual sex isn’t your thing. I think it’s going to be a while yet before the male couples get together, though Sam and Gabe might take a step forward in the next chapter. And I’m pretty sure the next smut won’t be for a couple more chapters and will be CharM again.
> 
> Also, I’m so, so sorry Kevin. I didn’t even know he’d be in this fic until Luci poked around in my brain to find someone to vent on and came up with one of the two characters I least wanted him to >.< (the other being Jack, and that would just be… no.)
> 
> And yes, I do realize I put a line from Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ in there :D


	5. Missing Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Best friends Sam and Gabriel have finally passed their challenges and will be joining the workforce next month. The free time is meant to be a reward for reaching adulthood, but before they can enjoy it, both young men have to face the knowledge that they’ve been drugged and who knows what else, and come to terms with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Mature
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Sam Winchester/Gabriel Shurley (Sabriel)
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Dean Winchester, Castiel Novak, Gabriel Shurley, Sam Winchester, Balthazar Rosen-Novak
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** vague memories of torture/rape, discussion of triggers.

Gabriel and Sam sat on the sofa in front of Balthazar’s desk, Cas in the chair on Gabe’s left, Dean in the one to Sam’s right. Questioning had been postponed until after the challenges, on the condition they come in the following morning. Which was why they found themselves seated across from Cas’s older brother, Captain of the detective division of SS-A, on July 2, 120 AD (After Dome), at 04:00 (four hours past ‘dawn’).

“Thank you all for coming in. And congratulations to Gabriel and Sam on passing your challenges. I realize you have no memories of what happened while you were drugged, but there are still things we can piece together. Cas,” Balthazar sighed, casting a regretful but authoritative look at his baby brother, “I think it best if you start.”

“I thought we agreed that-“ Cas started.

“We agreed that there was no need for an official investigation, as long as it remained an isolated incident. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. You’ve already shared your story with me, but I think it will make things easier for Gabriel and Sam if you relate your tale for them as well. Please.”

Cas sighed, looking from his younger brother Gabriel, to his best friend Sam, to Sam’s brother Dean, who had all turned surprised, worried looks at him. It was bad enough with Gabe and Sam, whom he’d known for years, but Dean… for some reason he didn’t want to see the older Winchester brother looking at him with pity. Besides, the teens didn’t seem to remember anything that happened while they were drugged. Maybe it was best they not hear what had happened to Cas.

“Cassie, I know what you’re thinking, but healing starts with understanding. They’re sure to have after-effects, triggers, just like you. In fact, I’ve already seen subconscious aversion in Gabriel. Isn’t it better for them to know what might trigger them and why?” Balthazar coaxed.

“I’m not sure about that. But I’ll defer to your judgment. It started around ten years ago. I’m not sure exactly when, because it took a while to even realize it was happening. But at some point, I figured out that there were times I’d spend hours studying, but not remember anything I’d studied. Father had given me special permission to take the challenge early, so I was studying every chance I had so that I would be ready by the time I was twelve. While I was trying to figure out what was happening on my own, the nightmares started. At first it was just waking up in a cold sweat, heart racing. Then I started remembering bits and pieces. Pain. Voices. My eyes were open but I couldn’t see. Just shapes moving around. And pain; so much pain. I know I heard the word efficacy because I didn’t know what it meant and had to look it up. And someone told me I could scream, so I did. A lot. Then… Do I have to?” Balthazar nodded, so Cas took a deep breath and pressed on. “There was metal… inserted… it was cold, and it hurt. The dreams weren’t always the same either, but always the same elements; pain, screaming, violation. Sometimes I heard ‘reward’ or ‘pleasure’, and then…” Cas squirmed in his chair. “Not metal; flesh. And pain and pleasure mixed and I don’t think I wanted to feel… but I couldn’t… couldn’t control my own body; couldn’t move unless I was told to, couldn’t see anything but blurry shapes, couldn’t hear clearly because sounds were distorted. The nightmares got worse and more frequent, more people, more voices. Though there weren’t any scars or bruises or discomfort, I did discover heal-spots,” he said, showing a long white crescent on his arm that looked very much like a spot where a cut had been healed by nano-medics. “Connecting that with the missing time; instances when I thought I’d been studying but knew I hadn’t learned anything, I went to Naomi for help. She discovered a foreign chemical in me, similar to what was used on Gabriel and Sam, but less complex. After that, I didn’t have any more missing time, and the nightmares grew less frequent and began to fade. Zar, you and Naomi both have copies of the dream journal I kept; there are more detailed descriptions of the nightmares in there. I was never able to remember faces or voices clearly, so I don’t know who was behind it, other than at first it was the same two men and later there were other, different men.”

When Castiel stopped talking, silence permeated the room, everyone stunned by the tale and its implications for Gabriel and Sam.

Balthazar was the first to speak. “And since then you haven’t had any more instances of thinking you’d done things you knew you hadn’t?”

“That’s correct. I’m sorry, if you had just opened an official investigation at that time, then maybe…” Cas frowned.

“No, Cassie, that wouldn’t have changed anything. I may not have gone through official channels, but I have been investigating on my own since then. Whoever’s behind it, and I have my suspicions, they’ve gotten more careful. For a few years, there were no leads, but then teens started coming up missing. Never more than one or two a year, and they always turned up after a few hours swearing they’d been at The Zoo or The Garden the whole time. There was never any physical evidence, not even heal-spots, and none of them have had nightmares. And they’ve all been between the ages of 14 and 18; old enough to have control over their own lives. Which makes me suspect the numbers are far higher than the handful that were untraceable when their parents looked for them; most parents don’t interfere much in their teens’ lives, so for every one that’s been reported missing, there are probably at least twenty, maybe more, that no one knew were missing, since they always turn up after a few hours. The number reported has gone up in recent years too, often around challenge time, similar to what happened two days ago with Sam and Gabe.”

“Still… I suspected I was some kind of test subject, just going by some of the garbled words I managed to make out. I should have told you that, but I didn’t want… I didn’t want to become a lab rat for Naomi on top of having been… I just didn’t think I could handle going through that. I should have been stronger; should have helped more. Especially now, knowing that the drug used on Gabriel and Sam was probably a modified or stronger version of what was used on me.”

“You couldn’t have known that then, though. Cassie, believe me, you did more to help than I ever would have asked or expected. Now, Gabriel, you next. What can you tell me?”

Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t really know anything. For all I know, yesterday was the first anything happened to me.”

“Naomi said you’d been injected more than once, though less than Sam,” Zar pointed out. “And when you told us Sam was with Lucifer you seemed pretty scared, though you couldn’t explain why.”

“Dunno. Luci and I used to be really close, but at some point I just… just didn’t want to be anywhere near him. Maybe it was when he and Sam started dating?”

“No,” Sam interjected, addressing Gabriel. “It was definitely before that. We both used to hang out with Luc up until we were eight or nine. Then you started ditching me, telling me not to come over, spending time with him. Around three years ago I cornered you, tried to find out what was going on, why you’d been pushing me away. You had definitely changed while you’d been avoiding me, but you said you were fine; everything was fine. I didn’t believe you, so I went to Luc and accused him of doing something. He said if he had done something, not that he was admitting to anything, but if he _had_ , he might be persuaded to leave you alone if I… if I dated him.” Unable to look his friend in the eye, Sam’s attention wandered to the others in the room. “We made a hypothetical agreement and then Gabriel and I spent almost every day together until I turned fourteen, when I started spending three or four days a week with Luc, the rest with Gabe. And I’m pretty sure the days with Gabe were real memories; he was reading over my stories and then describing directing them as though they were screenplays. Seems to me like the fake memories were less complex.”

“Wait, three or four? Pretty sure I only waited for you while you were with Luc two days a week. The rest of the time we were together. Weren’t we?” Gabriel frowned, gears turning.

“What? He lied to me. That fucking bastard!” Sam spat, realizing Lucifer had been playing him for over two years.

“Sammy, language,” Dean admonished. Sam muttered something about a pot and kettle that Dean didn’t quite catch and probably wouldn’t have understood if he had, since pots and kettles hadn’t been used in over a hundred years.

“So, one or two days a week when I thought I was hanging out with you, I was actually… what? If you were with Luc, then where was I?” Gabriel asked.

“Maybe… maybe you were with him too? I don’t know, some of the time I spent with Lucifer isn’t nearly as detailed as… other times,” Sam replied, blushing. “It’s possible you were there, and our memories were… overwritten or whatever? Hey, is there a way to recover those memories?”

“Naomi didn’t think there was,” Balthazar replied, thinking. “We could try Rowena MacLeod. Maybe psychology could succeed where science failed?”

“Wait, I thought psychology was science?” Dean chimed in.

“It is, but it’s not a hard science like chemistry or math. Soft sciences are a bit more nebulous,” Cas explained. “But if the drug prevented memories from forming in the first place, psychology won’t help either.”

“Still, wouldn’t hurt to try, would it?” Sam asked.

“You’re right, of course. Couldn’t hurt to give it a go. If you want to try, I’ll see if Rowena is available tomorrow,” Balthazar offered. “Gabriel, what about the times when you remember waiting for Sam; do you think those are real memories or false?”

“I spent a lot of the time working on my challenge projects. Those memories are real, otherwise I would’ve noticed not making progress. Sometimes I was too wor… I just couldn’t get the creative juices flowing so I spent most the time just thinking. It’s possible some of those could have been false. Kinda hard to say for sure. ‘Do I remember what I remember, or do I remember what someone told me to remember?’ How messed up a question is that to have to ask yourself?” Gabe responded.

“True, it can be kind of hard to distinguish. What about bad dreams, or other aversions that you didn’t have before? Besides Luc?”

Gabriel thought for a minute. “Alastair, but I’ve never liked him; guy’s creepy. I don’t remember having any nightmares, but sometimes I wake up feeling unsettled. And sometimes I jump for no apparent reason when anyone touches me.”

“And you don’t joke around anymore. You still laugh once in a while, but you used to always be joking around and now you don’t,” Sam added.

“And what about you, Sam? Any bad dreams or aversions?” Zar asked.

“Nightmares, but… those are from things I remember. Heat and bright lights bother me. And I can’t handle small spaces anymore. That could just be from having gotten bigger, but back when we were little I could hide in the tiniest nooks with no problems and now, even a Booth feels too small to me; like I can’t breathe,” Sam replied.

"Sharp or bladed metal," Cas said as he realized his own phobia stemmed from when he was drugged too. 

"Is that why you specialized in hand to hand rather than weaponry?" Zar asked, surprised he'd never thought to question it before.

"Partly. Hand to hand is also more practical; much harder to disarm me when my body is my weapon."

"That does make sense. Alright, then, anyone have anything else to add? No? In that case, I'll contact Rowena and let you all know what she says. In the mean time, Gabriel and Sam, if you don't mind, could you spend some time together and compare memories? Maybe start with two days ago and work backward from there, write down any discrepancies?" Balthazar concluded.

They agreed, then headed back to the Shurley house for lunch, after which Sam and Gabriel swore to stay there while Dean was at work. Cas followed Dean to the door as the younger brothers headed to Gabe's room.

"Dean, please make sure you're vigilant too. Just because they don't seem to target those who've joined the work force doesn't mean they won't. And you took away Luc's toy. He doesn't forgive things like that," Cas warned.

"Hey, no worries. I can take care of myself," Dean shrugged.

"Not if you're drugged you can't," Cas pointed out.

"Good point. Right, I'll be careful; make sure no one bumps into me. You be careful too, though. Lucifer lives here, right?" Dean added.

"Yes, but he usually doesn't come home until dark."

"Maybe you and Gabriel should stay at our place for a while."

"Perhaps that would be wise. I'll think about it. If Gabriel is agreeable."

"Ok, I'll come back here after work. Should be around 11:15 or so. Then we can all head back to our place, or I'll take Sammy home, depending on what you and Gabriel decide."

Castiel nodded, then went to the main room to work on the security program he'd been developing. As a special consultant for the security division, most of his work was done from home. Making sure he had a clear view of both the front door and the one to Gabriel's room, Cas began going over calculations and theories.

 

*****

 

"Sam," Gabriel started, once they were alone in his room, seated on the sofa, "did you really... that stuff with Luci, just for me?"

"Of course. He was messing with you, and you're my best friend," Sam replied.

"I didn't even know anything was going on. And why would you... you don't even like Luc. That's not something you do, even for a best friend."

"Gabe, you can't tell me you wouldn't do the same for me," Sam pointed out.

"That's different. I... it's not the same. Besides, it was all... Luci's a lying bastard. God, I'm so sorry, Sam. Why didn't you tell me? We could have gone to my mom or dad, or Michael, or Balthazar." Gabe fought the tears gathering in his eyes, but couldn't keep the hitch from his voice.

Sam shrugged. "What could they do? He never admitted to anything, there was no evidence, and blackmail isn't illegal."

"It should be," Gabe frowned.

"Should, but it isn't; I checked. Gabe, you spent years pushing me away, trying to keep me safe. You had to know I'd do the same for you. The thought of anyone hurting you..." Sam mumbled, reaching a hand to tentatively touch Gabe's cheek but stopping short, remembering what he said about being touched. "I'm so sorry."

"That's my line," Gabe replied, leaning forward until his cheek rested against Sam's hand. Something about the contact gave the tears permission to spill over and then Gabriel was crying for real, wrenching sobs that had him shaking. Wanting nothing but to forget everything that was happening for a while, he crawled into Sam's lap, curling into the taller boy who wrapped his arms around Gabe, holding him gently and rubbing his back soothingly.

"It'll be ok. Now that we know, we'll look out for each other. And Cas and Dean and Balthazar are looking out for us too. Plus Naomi's studying the drug; I'm sure she'll find a way to stop it from working. Maybe a vaccine or something. We'll figure it out," Sam murmured against the top of Gabe's head, not really sure what he was saying. They stayed like that for a long time, Sam gently stroking Gabe's hair and back until his friend finally cried himself out.

"Sam... why does this feel familiar?" Gabe asked quietly when he'd calmed enough to speak.

"Huh. I don't know, but you're right; it does feel kinda like dèjà vu."

Gabriel pulled back a little, looking up at Sam curiously, then reached a hand up to brush his fingers lightly over Sam's lips. They'd never been this close before, neither willing to risk their friendship for something the other might not want. Yet at the touch on his lips, Sam's gaze met Gabe's and he leaned down, body practically moving on its own until their lips were pressed together. Then they were kissing deeply, lips parting, tongues twining, mouths moving in a dance they both seemed to know. Hands roamed, reaching under clothing, desperate to touch as Sam gently lowered Gabe onto the sofa. They were both panting, starting to moan as their bodies rocked together, fingers beginning to unfasten clothing, when Sam stopped, shocked at what they were doing.

"Shit! Sorry," Sam said, eyes wide as Gabe blinked, then scrambled to the other side of the sofa.

"Whoa, that was... Dammit. I don't think that was the first time we've done that," Gabe frowned.

"I don't recall ever... but yeah, I think that was muscle memory. Our bodies remembering things our minds don't," Sam theorized.

"Fuck! No! That's no fucking fair!" Gabe cried, tears starting back up though he'd thought he didn't have any more to shed. "That means we've already had our first kiss and don't even remember it!"

"Wait, so you're not upset that we kissed, just that we don't remember having done it before?"

"I've been wanting to kiss you for forever. And now it turns out I most likely already have? And from the way we were going, probably more than kissed. Fuck, fuck, fuck! I'm gonna go find Luci right now and kick his ass."

"Gabe, we don't even know for sure Luc's behind it. He could have just been taking advantage of my worry over you. Besides, violence is a punishable offense. Also, can we talk about the part where you said you've been wanting to kiss me?"

"It's not like I would ever have taken advantage of you or anything, but, yeah. I've liked you for as long as I can remember."

"Really?"

"Sorry. Our friendship is definitely more important. Regardless of what may or may not have happened during times we don't remember, I'm happy just being with you."

"Don't apologize. Unless it's for not saying something sooner. 'Cause I've liked you for as long as I can remember too. Which means we both like each other and have been too chicken-shit to say anything," Sam replied.

"So, what do we do now?" Gabe asked.

"I'll follow your lead. Though if you wanted my input, I'd vote for more kissing," Sam grinned hopefully.

"Well, Zar did suggest we compare notes. How about we see how much our bodies remember? Clothes on, though."

"Sounds reasonable to me," Sam smiled as Gabe crawled back into his lap. They definitely compared a lot of notes.

 

*****

next chapter: Missing Recollections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took so long >.< i say that way too much. anyway, it's here, it's done, only a bit over a day late. i'll reproof it within a day or three. In the meantime, feel free to point out any errors and i'll be sure to fix them. comments, questions, corrections, and suggestions always appreciated and encouraged :D


	6. Missing Recollections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rowena MacLeod is thrilled to be asked to work with one of the Shurley children. An’ their friend, Sam What's-his-name. She'll spend lots of time on whatever this memory problem thingy is, and no one will say boo about it, because only the best for the Shurleys. Which means more overtime, and more of the best for Rowena herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Explicit
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** underage, questionable consent due to drugs and blackmail,
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Lucifer/Sam, Sam/Gabriel, Gabriel/multi
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Rowena MacLeod, Dean Winchester, Castiel Novak, Gabriel Shurley, Sam Winchester, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Lucifer Shurley, Alastair
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** regression hypnosis, first time, non-descriptive recollection of gangbang (sorry), anal sex NSFW
> 
> Added note: I thought about removing the first three paragraphs; they aren’t necessarily important to the story, just give some insight on Rowena and Heaven. Feel free to skip down to the second section if that doesn’t interest you. Also, feel free to read most of this chapter in Rowena's accent, since it's her pov :D

Rowena MacLeod’s cat-like green eyes narrowed as she read the message, a smile spreading over her full lips. So, one of the Shurley boys and his friend were suffering from memory tampering? She could work with that, mind already picturing the new dresses and jewelry she would synth with the extra work credits. Sure, the dome provided basic clothing free, but not more than one outfit per month, an’ that didn’t include shoes, bags, earrings, necklaces, rings, bangles… not to mention said outfits were limited in design. Well, there was a wide range of various, sensible clothing, but Rowena’s favoured dresses weren’t necessarily practical, even if they were beautiful. Not that the free clothing went to waste. She had a wardrobe full of lovely pant outfits, which she wore for work. They looked good on her too, of course, but not nearly as stunning as the dresses she programmed up.

She sent a reply quickly, asking Captain Rozen-Novak to bring the darlings to her office first thing in the morning; she’d clear the day for them, as memory tampering was a tricky thing and could take quite some time, perhaps several days or weeks even, to unravel. But unravel she would; there was no one better than her when it came to the mystical complexities of the mind.

That done, she sent a message to Bernard, instructing him to come escort her to the square for dinner and dancing. ‘Twas a shame the dome had no restaurants or clubs. Humans were meant to be social creatures, but the dome tended to isolate. Folks stayed home in their holo-rooms, in close-knit groups of family and friends, or substituting programmed people for real. Wasn’t healthy, of course, but who was she to say? Only the foremost psychological researcher in the dome, that’s who. Chuck, bein’ a secretive an’ solitary sort, hadn’t had anywhere in the dome designed for people to gather, other than for work or education. After a few… entertaining encounters, she’d managed to convince him of the need for recreational gatherings, so he’d included parks in every sector, and The Square, which occupied the center of Northaven. It featured a fountain, the only place in Heaven where one could hear the lovely melody of flowing water. The tiled mosaic ground around it could produce any configuration of tables and chairs, and music could be requested to play from the fountain. An open bank of computers along the north wall offered a variety of dishes from around the world that could be synthed, the idea being to broaden citizens’ pallets, give them inspiration for new or different meals they could synth up at home.

Rowena still hosted parties at The Square every Friday, but these days, few attended. Pre-domers had grown tired of the same thing week after week, and domers never understood the point of the social gatherings in the first place. Feeble as the Friday turnouts were, the rest of the week was worse. Barely anyone ever used The Square, so Rowena and Bernard wound up having a quiet, romantic dinner (though they weren’t quite romantic partners). The holo-tiles produced a small round table covered in a white, lace trimmed tablecloth, complete with a vase that had a candle rising from the center, flowers coming out from the sides to circle the candleholder. Cushioned, wrought-iron chairs completed the setting, one of which Bernard held out for her like the perfect gentleman she’d trained him to be. Rowena had learned from a young age how to ‘make do’, and make do she did. In spite of the solitude of the square, they had a quite pleasant dinner, then finished off the evening with some equally pleasant time at her place.

 

*****

 

Rising as the door opened, Rowena extended a hand across the desk to the four young men and the older, rather dashing, SS-A detective. “Captain Rosen-Novak, I presume?” she said, shaking the older man’s hand last. Always finding it entertaining to guess ages, she estimated the detective to be around 135, give or take a few years. The children were easier to tell; the youngest ones both 16, around a quarter year difference between them, taller one older. They were close, but not related. Both had longish brown hair in similar styles and hazel eyes, though the tall one’s brown hair was darker, hazel eyes leaning toward blue, and the short one’s brown was much lighter, eyes a deep honey with just a bit of blue around the edges marking them as hazel. The remaining two boys were twenty; the one with the messy, dark hair and blue eyes, closer to twenty-one. The other, maybe an inch taller with shorter, golden-brown hair and hazel-green eyes, was obviously older brother to the tallest boy, despite being shorter. Probably more than brother; parental figure too. “So, then. Samuel Winchester, and older brother…? She said, gesturing for them to sit with a regal wave of her hand as she did so herself. Nodding to the tallest boy, she then turned her gaze to the surmised brother, eyebrow raised.

“Dean,” he supplied.

“Right, Dean. Sorry, your name was not included in the message,” Rowena switched her gaze to the other two boys. “And Gabriel and Castiel Shurley?” she added, nodding to each in turn.

“Novak,” Cas corrected. “I kept my mother’s married name.”

“Ah, I see. So you and the Captain are half-brothers to young Gabriel?”

“Yes,” Cas replied.

But full brothers with each other. Rowena suspected Rosen was their mother’s maiden name. The detective was obviously a pre-domer, most likely born when the mother was unwed. Then the mother married someone named Novak, who adopted the bastard son. Over a century later, she had Castiel, perhaps an affair with Chuck? Or possibly widowed. It’s unlikely her husband would’ve given the boy his name, then allowed him to be raised in the Shurley household. Of course, all of that was merely idle speculation. “Well, then, Gabriel and Samuel, I’ll need to see you each individually, of course, but to start, would you prefer to stay together?” The lads nodded, hands joining for support. “Right. Older brothers out, please,” she instructed, dismissing the other three toward the door with another graceful wave of her hand.

“I don’t-“ 

Rowena cut the sec off before he could finish. “Sorry, it’s the nature of the business. I need to speak with them privately; otherwise their thoughts and speech will be guarded. Don’t worry your pretty little heads about it; they’re in good hands.”

Balthazar frowned, but went to the door anyway, holding it open for Dean and Cas. “We’ll be right outside,” he informed Gabe and Sam, who nodded, then he stepped out and closed the door behind him.

“Now, we’re in a safe space here, everything you say is confidential, even from your brothers unless you ask me to tell them something. Why don’t you start by telling me, in your own words, why you’ve come to me.”

A glance passed between the boys. Gabriel nodded, then Sam spoke. “We were drugged. Naomi Shurley fixed the chemical stuff, but the drug gave us false memories of what we did while we were drugged. We were wondering if there was a way to recover the real memories.”

“I see,” Rowena replied, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the desk, fingers pressed together, pointer fingers tapping against each other. “Well, it could be possible to recover the memories through hypno-therapy, but first, I must ask, are you quite certain you _want_ to remember?” The boys’ body language suggested they didn’t, and if they didn’t want to remember, they wouldn’t. Or their brains might supply false memories in an attempt to either ease or confirm their fears. Rowena couldn’t say for certain which, because the boys appeared to want both. They didn’t want their suspicions to be real, yet at the same time, they did. A bit contradictory, but then, people usually were.

Sam and Gabriel looked at each other uncertainly, hands squeezing for comfort.

“Sorry, boys, but unless you truly want to remember, trying will do more harm than good. I’d love nothing more than to help you, I really would, but my hands are tied, as it were. Do feel free to return at any time if you find the resolve to really know,” Rowena said, painted eyes blinking slowly. She could have drawn things out; should have. But she couldn’t risk giving the boys false memories; no one would ever trust her again. An’ while she may enjoy all the extra work credits she can get, she was still a professional.

 

*****

 

“Sam. Well, I must say, this is a surprise. I’d thought it’d be Gabriel,” Rowena said, smiling at the boy across her desk.

“I don’t want him to remember,” Sam replied, determined look on his face.

“Yes, dear, but do _you_ want to remember?” the psychological expert pressed.

“I… I need to know that I haven’t hurt him.”

“An’ if it turns out you _have_ hurt him?”

Sam frowned. “Then I need to know that too, so I can try to make up for it.”

“Samuel, whether drugged or hypnotized, you can’t be forced to do something that’s truly against your nature,” Rowena assured.

“But… what if hurting people isn’t against my nature?”

“Don’t be silly, boy, of course hurting people isn’t against your nature, though you obviously reject that part of you. Hurting Gabriel, however, that is completely beyond your ability,” Rowena replied, going around the desk to pat Sam comfortingly on the shoulder.

“What?” Sam exclaimed.

“Now, now, don’t fret. We humans are hardwired toward violence. Harkens back to the days when killing big animals with little sticks was necessary for survival. Not to mention being strong enough to take and keep a mate. I’m guessing the anger in you stems from… your father? Ah, yes, that’s it. Daddy issues.” Rowena soothed.

Sam frowned. “I’m not here to talk about ‘daddy issues’.”

“No, of course not. You’re here out of love, not anger. Now, I think we can dig up some of those memories, but I’ll need a place to start. Or rather, a time to start. Do you know when the altered memories began?”

Sam thought for a moment, back to when he’d first started ‘dating’ Lucifer. Grimacing, he remembered the first time with him; day after his fourteenth birthday. The oldest Shurley son had delighted in Sam’s reluctance, constantly making comments about how Sam wasn’t really into it and maybe he should go back to Gabe, and talking about things Gabe had done with and to him, just so he’d stay away from Sam, and here Sam was, doing the same thing. Rowena was alight with curiosity at the expressions crossing Sam’s face, but she stayed silent as the boy thought through the days, weeks. Everything was clear, and with far more detail than Sam cared to remember, until their thirteenth ‘date’. Counting off dates in his head, he determined it was May 28, 118 AD and said as much to Rowena.

“Right then,” she said, heading to a door to the right of her desk. “Follow me.”

The room Sam followed to had no windows. It was small, had an anti-grav sleeper on one wall with an armchair nearby, antique wooden end table between the two and bookshelves on two of the walls, complete with actual, antique books. They gave off an interesting aroma unlike anything Sam had ever smelled before, which mingled with the scent of dust, joined gradually by flower-scented candles and sandalwood incense as Rowena moved around the room, igniting various items. Sam watched the dancing flames, the curling smoke, enthralled. He’d never seen actual fire before, other than in vids and holo-rooms. The real fire looked different, and though Sam had an aversion to holo-fire and heat, the candlelight somehow felt soothing.

“I’ve got special permission to use fire. All kinds of ridiculous safety precautions I have to take, but I’ve found nothing has quite the same feel and scent. It’s only allowed in this room, but it’s better than not being permitted at all. You don’t mind if I record this, do you? Audio only, of course.” Sam gave his assent. “Now, then, into the sleeper,” Rowena instructed. 

Sam complied, though he wasn’t used to ag sleepers. He and Dean both had normal beds. The weightlessness felt weird, but also comfortable. 

“Slow, deep breaths, dearie. That’s right, in, out, in, out. No need to think about anything, no worries, you’re floating on a cloud of comfort. Just weightlessness and slow, deep breaths. How are you feeling, Samuel?”

Sam didn’t feel hypnotized, just calm, relaxed. Smoke from the candles and incense floated into the ag field, swirling softly before dissipating. “Good. I feel good.”

“That’s good. Slow, deep breaths. This is a safe place. Nothing can harm you here, and nothing that happens here leaves this room without your permission. Now, then, we’re going to go back into your mind, back to May 28, 118. Can you walk me through that day? How did it start?”

Sam couldn’t remember the minutiae of what happened on a specific day two years ago, yet as he drifted, his mind floated too, and he found himself waking up, sore from having been with Lucifer the day before. It hadn’t been their first time, but he’d been more… forceful than previous times. A quick nano-medic had taken care of the discomfort and Sam had bio-cleansed, dressed, synthed breakfast, eaten, then gone to the LM. Gabe had met him outside and they’d gone in, sitting next to and smiling at each other before putting on their holo-visors to receive their individual instruction. Sometimes their programs linked, allowing them to learn together, since parts of their intended careers overlapped. Sam loved learning together with Gabe, loved just sitting side by side, even when they were in different holo-programs. But Lucifer’s shadow cast a pall over that comfort. After LM, they headed to the park outside The Garden, synthing up some food for lunch. Sam had promised to meet with Lucifer again, so Gabe went into The Garden to wait, and Sam headed to E9P8 with Lucifer. They had sex on the sofa, then Sam passed out. When he woke up, he was in Lucifer’s lap. To make up for having passed out and slept for several hours, he sucked the man off, swallowing to avoid mess as instructed, then went back to The Garden and Gabe. They never discussed what happened while Sam was gone, just went to working on their challenge projects, Sam casting longing looks at his best friend. He didn’t care what happened to him, as long as he could keep Gabe safe. Even if he and Gabe never got to-

“Sorry, dearie, can you go back to being on the sofa with Lucifer? Was there anything different about that time? Different than previous encounters with him?”

Sam frowned. “He… he came inside. Ejaculated, I mean.”

“An’ he hadn’t done that before?”

“I hadn’t let him. I didn’t want … that … inside me. I didn’t want him inside me at all, but if it wasn’t me, it’d be Gabriel, and I didn’t want that more.”

“So, what made you allow it this time?” Rowena lilted, voice soft and soothing, keeping Sam calm and relaxed.

“I don’t… He… he told me I wanted him to. He said I wanted to feel his come inside me, and I wouldn’t be able to come until he did, but once he came inside me I’d be coming my balls off. But he said I had to ask for it, beg him. I didn’t want to, but I did. I begged him. And I came so hard I cried, but maybe that was because it wasn’t what I wanted, even though I did want it, but I didn’t. But I did, I must have, because I came hard, just like he said I would, and this was supposed to be to protect Gabe, but it felt like I’d just betrayed him in the worst way possible…

 

*****

 

“Be honest, Sammy, how was that?” Lucifer smirks.

“Horrible,” Sam replies, wondering why he’s saying that. He doesn’t want Lucifer to go back on their deal.

“Would you have preferred someone else be the first to come inside you?” Lucifer quips as he tucks himself in and zips up. He hadn’t even bothered getting undressed, which was shitty, but considering they were in public, everything about it had been shitty.

Sam opens his mouth to say no. “Of course. I don’t want anyone but Gabe.” Where had that come from? He pulls his pants up from around his thighs and fastens them, trying not to look at the puddle of white he’d left on the sofa.

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I was the first to come inside Gabe, too. Though certainly not the last. He’s been fucked by so many guys you-“

Sam dives for Lucifer, prepared to kill him. He hates the psycho, hates what he suspects the guy has done to Gabe, but he’s never wanted to know for sure. It’s just too awful. Too horrible. Why? Why would Lucifer do such a thing to his own, biological brother (Though Luc was lab-made and Gabe was born naturally, they both came from the same parental DNA)?

“Stop,” Lucifer says calmly, and Sam does. “Oh, Sammy, Sammy, Sammy. Don’t worry. I’m not a bad guy. I’m even going to give you what you want most.”

“What are you talking about?” Sam asks, fear curling in his stomach.

“Sign this, then follow me and find out,” Lucifer smirks, holding out a Chuckle with a sig reader, to which Sam obediently puts his right thumb, then heading toward one of the Booths around the park.

Sam finds his feet moving against his will. He’s terrified. He doesn’t want to know; doesn’t want to see. Because he knows that, in spite of their deal, Lucifer has Gabe.

Opening the Booth, Lucifer gestures Sam inside. Though he doesn’t want to, Sam’s feet move him into the booth and he stops just beyond the door. There’s a bed along one wall, under the only illumination in the room. Everything else is in shadow. Gabe is on the bed, on his knees and naked, fingering himself as he jacks off under instructions from Lucifer’s friend, Alastair.

“He’s waiting for you, Sammy. He wants you; wants you to fuck him, hard and deep, and then he’s going to fuck you right back, plunging his dick into all my come that’s still in your ass. You want that, don’t you?” Lucifer murmurs in Sam’s ear.

“I… not… not like this,” Sam protests, eyes darting around to the men standing in the shadows and panting to the show Gabe is giving them.

“Don’t worry, Sammy, there’s no one else here, just you and Gabe. You’re going to do everything I just said Gabe wants, and you’re going to do it like you’re putting on a performance, but that’s ok, because this is what you’ve been wanting for so long, isn’t it? Gabe wants it too. He can’t come until you come inside him. And then you’ll both be hard again and you won’t be able to find release until he spills inside you. He needs relief. Look at him; he can’t get off no matter how much he jacks it. He needs you. Go get ‘im, tiger,” Lucifer orders.

They’re not alone. Part of Sam knows that, though the only one he can see is Gabe. He definitely does not see Alastair leaning in and whispering in Gabe’s ear. The only thing he sees is Gabe, looking toward him with pleading eyes, and then he’s there, pulling his best friend, who he’s loved for as long as he can remember, into his arms.

“Sam… I’ve wanted this for so long,” Gabe says, pulling at Sam’s clothes as he presses in for a long, deep kiss.

It’s everything Sam ever imagined, except… He pulls away to shrug off his overshirt and allow Gabe to yank his tee over his head. “Gabe… is this really what you want or is it just because you were told to want it?” Sam asks. The answer won’t change what’s about to happen; for some reason he can’t ignore Lucifer’s orders. But it makes a difference to Sam. He loves Gabe, and though he’d never planned on telling him, now that they’re in this situation, he just… needs to know.

“I was told to want it, but… it’s also what I want. I’m happy being friends with you, and I would never jeopardize that, but I’ve always hoped we might someday be more,” Gabe replies as he relieves Sam of the rest of his clothes.

Sam pushes Gabe back onto the bed, manhandling him into a position that offers a good view for the ‘nonexistent’ spectators, and hating it. He doesn’t want to act like they’re putting on a show for an audience that ‘isn’t there’, but for some reason he’s bound by Lucifer’s orders. Kissing his way up Gabe’s body, he covers him, rocking against the smaller boy as their lips join again, tongues pushing past to twine together. Gabe tastes sweet, his arms and legs wrapping around Sam without obstructing the view.

“Gabe, I love you. I didn’t want to risk our friendship either, but I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember. As much as I’d rather this be in different circumstances, slower, gentler, I can’t deny that I want it; want you. Can this… is this ok?” Sam asks as the kiss breaks, kneading Gabe’s thigh as he continues rocking against him.

“Yeah, it’s good. I want you. Please?” Gabe replies, grabbing the lube he’d used to prepare himself and leaning up to stroke a good amount over Sam’s erection.

Sam moans, pushing Gabe back down onto the bed to reclaim his lips. Though it’s not his first time having sex, it is his first time topping, so at least he can give that to Gabe. When he’s not paying attention, his body seems to move on its own, lining himself up and nudging against Gabe’s already-prepped entrance. Not wanting to rush, or do something wrong, he forces his thoughts back to what he’s doing, rocking gently against the opening but not entering yet. “Gabe… I’ve never done this part before. Tell me if I do something wrong, or if there’s something specific you want me to do?” he murmurs against Gabe’s ear.

“Just start slow and do what feels good,” Gabe replies, grazing his teeth over Sam’s earlobe. “I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to tell what I like,” he adds, and Sam can feel his smirk against his neck where Gabe starts nibbling and sucking.

“I really love you, Gabe,” Sam breathes as he slowly pushes into the tight but pliant warmth. Gabe’s right leg moves up, hugging against Sam’s ribs to give a better view of where they’re joined, while his left leg goes to the bed, bent knee giving him leverage to tilt up a bit, adjusting the angle. When Sam bottoms out, they both moan in pleasure, lips joining again as they take a few moments for both of them to adjust; Gabe to the thick length buried inside him, Sam to the fact that he’s actually doing something he’s wanted for so long. As their mouths move, finding the best ways to fit together, tongues exploring, thrusting, claiming years of missed opportunities, their bodies begin to follow suit. Sam manages to keep the pace slow, though his thrusts are hard and deep. It feels amazing, especially when he hits Gabe’s prostate, drawing forth sublime sounds of ecstasy from his friend, who tightens around him, both effects increasing Sam’s own pleasure. Having just come not that long ago, Sam’s in no danger of an early release, and they’re both enjoying their first foray past friendship. Gazing into each other’s eyes, they revel in the liquid heat burning through their bodies, until Sam hears Lucifer’s voice telling him to go faster, which he does.

“Sam,” Gabe gasps, rocking into the quick, hard thrusts, “so good! More, please. I, I need to come; need you to come.”

Whimpering at the need in Gabe’s voice, Sam increases his pace, hips snapping forward instinctively in a way he’s felt, but never done himself. “Gabe. Gabe! Love you! So good!” he cries, feeling a tightening in his balls as he nears the summit. Writhing and moaning beneath him, Gabe reaches up, clawing at Sam’s arm and Sam shifts his weight, freeing a hand to grab Gabe’s, twining their fingers together as he rocks deeper, harder, faster. Hands and gazes joined as firmly as their bodies where Sam’s thick, hard length is claiming Gabe, the thrumming in Sam’s veins reaches a crescendo and then he’s coming hard as he buries himself deep. The heat flooding into Gabe in waves pushes him over the edge as well, and they both cry out, shuddering together in a pleasure both had always hoped for but neither had ever dared to believe they’d actually get to enjoy. After a few moments of bliss, Sam pulls out, laying beside Gabe propped up on an elbow so he can lean over him, left hand tracing over his cheek and neck, thumbing lightly over his lips. “You ok? Was I too rough?” he asks, concern evident on his face.

“Sam, you were amazing. And I love you too. I’ve loved you for so long,” Gabe murmurs, hand carding through the taller boy’s hair, then drawing him down for a long, tender kiss.

 

*****

 

“And then, while we were kissing, I heard Lucifer’s voice telling me I was erect again and needed Gabe to pound me hard and fast from behind because that was the only way to get the release I desperately needed. Of course, I’d already come twice and there was no way I could be ready again so soon, but I was hard and aching. I didn’t hear Alastair telling Gabe he needed to do what Lucifer had just said, but I was on my hands and knees before I knew it, begging Gabe, and he complied, using the semen he’d just released to coat himself before slamming into me from behind. I was still loose from Lucifer, and the sound of Gabe ramming into my come-filled ass brought tears to my eyes, knowing what caused the unwanted noise. But the feel of Gabe inside me was amazing, his long, firm cock driving me wild in a way Lucifer never could no matter how much he drugged or blackmailed me. It was hot and frenzied, and we came faster than I thought possible, Gabe collapsing onto my back, arms wrapped around my chest.

“Gabe had barely finished whispering that had been his first time topping too, when hands were there, pulling us apart. Lucifer said Gabe wanted me to watch him get fucked by other guys, and I wanted him to watch me get fucked by Luc. Alastair mirrored the directions to Gabe. I didn’t want to watch; didn’t want him to watch. But I also had to want it because I’d been told to. So, as we were each bent over the bed, our hands clasped between us, Gabe watching me as I watched him. We tried to ignore what was happening, focusing only on each other. Though I tried not to see the guys taking turns with Gabe, I know there were at least four, maybe more. Lucifer didn’t let anyone else touch me, but he’s like a demon when it comes to sex. I swear his libido is unnatural. He was on me the whole time… Eventually it was over; the men left and Lucifer used nano-medics to heal us. Then Luc told me I wouldn’t remember what had happened except when I was drugged. He said when the drug wore off, I’d think I’d been sleeping since passing out after we’d screwed on the sofa. We left the booth and he made me lay down with my head in his lap, after which he told me to sleep until the drug wore off. Gabe was still in the Booth when I left; I don’t know what happened with him after that, but he was back at The Garden when I got there,” Sam concluded.

“It seems the memory existed; that’s good, even if the recollection itself isn’t. Did you recognize any of the men there, other than Lucifer and Alastair?” Rowena asked, voice still low and soothing.

“They were all in shadow; the only light was focused on the bed,” Sam replied.

“Any distinguishing marks at all? Or maybe you saw some of them when they went in or out of the Booth? You’ll remember better later if you look for things now, while you’re still under,” Rowena pressed.

Sam thought back over the memory, focusing on the peripheral. He really hadn’t seen anyone else there after Lucifer said Sam and Gabe were alone, not even Luc. But before that, when he’d first entered the Booth… “There were six men watching. Not sure if they all… participated. None taller than me; I’m 6’2”. Shortest was maybe… 5’6”? 5’8”? Somewhere around there. Hard to tell; like I said, it was all shadowed. I didn’t see anyone enter the Booth; Lucifer had me facing away from it when he was… at that time. And the men left the Booth first.”

“He had you sign something near the beginning; do you know what it was?” Rowena questioned further.

Sam replayed that part in his mind. “I tried to read it, but he snatched it away too quickly. The lettering looked like it was some kind of legal document. One of the words might have started with an ‘I’ though; Intent, maybe?”

“That’s very good,” Rowena praised in her soothing lilt. “Is there anything else you can think of that might be helpful to remember more clearly?”

Thinking over that first time with Gabe, and the initial press of their lips together, Sam replied, “No.” Clarifying those memories was for his benefit alone.

“Alrighty, then. This has been a long session, so we’re going to wrap up soon, but first, I need to ask: do you want to keep these memories, after you wake? You can leave them buried in your subconscious if you prefer. With your permission, Captain Rosen-Novak can listen to the recording rather than questioning you,” Rowena offered.

“I want to remember,” Sam replied, not willing to lose the memory of his first time with Gabe, even though there had been bad mixed in with it.

“Be warned, right now you are in a trance-state; your emotions are somewhat subdued. This recollection may be far more disturbing to you once you wake. And it may trigger other memories to surface, though I suspect it will take many more sessions before we can find everything that has been altered.”

“I can handle it,” Sam affirmed.

“If you’re sure then… when you wake, you will remember everything you and I talked about here. Are you ready?”

“Yes,” 

“Ok. I’m going to count down from ten, giving you time to drift back toward consciousness. When I snap my fingers, you will leave the trance state, returning to the here and now. Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one…” Rowena snapped her fingers.

Blinking, Sam tried to sit up and wound up flailing in the anti-gravity.

“Calm down, Sam,” Rowena soothed, changing the ag sleeper to wake mode. Sam stiffened back into a reclining position as the gravity gradually returned. “Just relax, you’ll be able to sit up in a minute.”

Once Sam was back on the bed of the sleeper, he took a deep breath, then pushed himself upright. “I’m not so sure I like ag’s,” he commented.

Rowena chuckled. “Other than the ag disorientation, how do you feel?”

“… Nauseous. Not from the ag.”

“Understandable. That wasn’t the most pleasant thing to recall. Would you like to talk it over now? I can’t change what happened, but I can help you deal with it.”

“I think… I think I need time for it to sink in. And I’d like to talk with Gabe about it. I’ll probably need help coping, but I’m sure you and I both could use a break first. How long have we been here?”

“A bit over three hours. You can come to me any time you’re ready to talk about this. And if you want to continue retrieving memories, we can do that, but not until you’ve had time to process this one. If we move too quickly, it’ll do more harm than good, and we don’t want that, do we?”

“No, I agree; I don’t want to remember too much at once. What about Gabe?” Sam asked

“I know you want to protect him, but I think he needs to remember and work through things too. An’ it would be better if the two of you went through this process together. Not in joint sessions though; not for the memory retrieval, at least. That’d cause a risk of altered memories. But if he’s willing, I’d like for him to come in tomorrow, and we can have him remember the same day. And if you could, please don’t discuss what you remembered with him before then. That way, I can verify that the recollection is accurate.” Rowena replied.

“Could you maybe… stop his remembering after our first time? Before the… really bad stuff?”

“Not unless he asks me to. I know it’s not pleasant, but I really think he needs to remember everything. You weren’t with him the whole time; he should know what happened after you and Lucifer left,” Rowena said as she rose and began extinguishing the candles. The incense had burned out long ago.

“True, though the thought of what might’ve happened when he was alone with Alastair is pretty scary. I’ll talk with him about coming in tomorrow and have him send you a message.”

“You do that, dearie. And remember, any time you need me, night or day, come see me, or if you need me to come to you, just send a message.”

 

*****

 

Next Chapter: Missing Truths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was sick all last week. You’d think that would mean more time for writing, but nope, brain wasn’t working. I did manage to reread all the chapters a couple times and will be making a few minor corrections soon. And I’ve been thinking over my writing schedule. With some good advice from a fellow writer, I’ve decided to continue trying to update this fic every Monday, and switch to posting on Heavenly Body every other week. Would be nice if I could get ahead a bit so illnesses or writer’s block don’t cause delays.
> 
> This particular chapter was rather difficult, what with the bitter-sweet memory of Sam and Gabriel’s first time. I’m ok with the Sam/Gabe stuff, since they’re both the same age (sixteen), but the other stuff gave me chills, and not the good kind >.<
> 
> Next chapter should have some CharM smut, and a whole lot of backstory ^.^


	7. Missing Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an… interesting Challenge Day shared with a mysterious young woman, Charlie must try to piece together the things she’s been told she’s forgotten. A visit from Meg fills in a lot of details.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Mature
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** rape, violence, underage (remembered, not shown)
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Charlie/Meg
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Charlie Bradbury, Meg Masters, mentions of: Crowley, Rowena, Lucifer, Alastair, Michael, Naomi, Chuck, Gabriel, Sam, Balthazar, Cesar  & Jesse, Krissy, Ruby, Claire
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** Meg tells what happened to her when she was little, so **trigger warnings** for non-descriptive torture and rape of a child (sorry  >.<), CharM, NSFW

Charlie woke to find her headache had dulled, though it was still there. First thing first, she synthed up a cup of mocha since it was definitely a chocolate morning. Taking warm, delicious sips between bio-cleansing and dressing, she brought her portable and the PDSs it was connected to over to the table. After getting a breakfast wrap and fresh cup of mocha from the synth, Charlie sat and began looking through her recent data. Though she didn’t remember having run a facial recognition search the night before last, she apparently must have, because the results were still displayed when she turned the portable on. There was a ‘sketch’, which she must have done up herself with her old composite sketch program, on the left side of the screen, and a news article on the right showing the same man; short, with dark hair and beard lightly dotted with gray, wearing a tech-age suit that looked both impractical and uncomfortable. According to the article, his name was Fergus ‘Crowley’ MacLeod, pictured with mother, Rowena.

Happy to have a face and last name to go with ‘Crowley’, she opened her name recognition program to run a search on MacLeod, see if he was in any other articles, only to find, she’d already done that too. The results hadn’t been read yet though; if she knew herself, which, duh, she obviously did, then she would have set the program to run overnight. There must not have been time to check the results yesterday before the Challenges. Come to think of it, she remembers having overslept yesterday, though she doesn’t remember there being any reason to wake early. 

Most of the flagged articles were on Rowena, though there were a few on Crowley. The earliest was the one with him and his mom, announcing his arrival to the dome in 28 AD, at the age of 54. Charlie looked at the photo again. Fifty-four? He appeared mid-thirties, forty at most. Heck, he could even pass for a domer. Anyway, the next few articles were about artifacts he’d found for the museum; a ‘Commodore 64’ (early computer technology from over 400 years ago), two ‘hover-boards’ (one from 380 years ago that rolled on wheels and one from 250 years ago that actually hovered, using early ag technology), a collection of ‘telephones’ from four to five hundred years ago, and an 800 year old ‘printing press’. 

Charlie knew what the last two were, having studied the history of reporting and news exchange back in LM, but doubted other readers would have heard of them or known what they were used for, if not for the articles. Maybe she could include information on the inventions leading up to current innovations in some of her articles. The editors might accuse her of padding, but sometimes seeing the paths that led to current research could draw attention to branches that hadn’t been explored. For instance, the anti-gravity technology that had been refined for the hover-boards went on to be used in things such as the ag sleepers and the safety harnesses worn in the Training Grounds. But the root of the technology had been in recreation. Well, before that it might have been used in preparation for space exploration, she wasn’t sure. And actually, space exploration had been abandoned long, long ago. Why? Not only had they given up on exploring the stars, but they’d stopped exploring their own home planet too. Something about that just didn’t seem right. Realizing she’d lost her TC of thought, Charlie tried to get back on track. Recreation. Right, ag tech had branched off from recreation, but why didn’t they still have it in recreational uses? Or why hadn’t further applications toward recreation been invented? There was sure to be all kinds of fun ways to use a room-wide anti-gravity field. Maybe Mom would be able to go swimming even without available bodies of water. Opening a document, Charlie jotted out some story ideas; a series on ‘why don’t we have’, including anti-grav rooms for recreational use and space exploration, and adding ‘where it came from’ details to her articles.

That tangent finished, she went back to what she was supposed to be doing; learning about Crowley. And all she had learned was that he’d collected some very old artifacts from somewhere (the articles didn’t say how he’d obtained them), and he was a pre-domer who joined Heaven 92 years ago. There were no recent articles on him, so no help with whatever he was up to now. According to the answers Meg had told her to give, Charlie had seen him talking to teenagers at The Zoo and been curious. When she’d spotted him again on Challenge Day, she had followed him to the TC station nearest the challenger entrance and watched him talking with more kids, but hadn’t discovered why he was doing so or what he was up to. He must have caught her watching him because that was the afternoon he’d drugged her and sent her to be interrogated by Meg, who had given her an antidote while they were having sex. Meg must be involved in whatever was going on as well, but she had promised to show up at Charlie’s house at some point to tell her more.

None of that was helpful at the moment, so until Meg managed to find time to come by without arousing the suspicion of her cohorts, Charlie would just have to work on something else. After tossing her breakfast plate into the recyc, she synthed herself a fresh cup of regular coffee and pulled out her Chuckle to work on her article for Challenge Day. Of course she didn’t get any data after lunch other than the last two Challenges, since she’d been asleep/drugged-and-in-a-Booth-having-sex-with-a-hot-chick, but she didn’t seem to remember much of the morning either. Did that mean she’d spent most of the time watching Crowley (which she’d have forgotten, having been instructed to ‘not remember anything about Crowley or the business he manages’), or did it mean his business was somehow related to the Challenge? Hopefully if there was a relation, she’d mentioned it to the Chuckle. Turning the device on, Charlie was only mildly surprised to find it wiped. If they were going to go to the trouble of drugging her to make her forget, it would be pointless if they overlooked her recorded data. Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for Crowley, Charlie was a genius when it came to computer technology. Knowing there were many ways she could lose data, she had a hidden program that copied her documents every fifteen minutes. In addition to that, she had a hidden security program that only allowed data to be wiped if the correct key sequence was used before the command; if said sequence was not used, it would give the appearance of being wiped while actually leaving everything intact. 

_Nice try, Crowley, but you don’t know who you’re dealing with,_ Charlie thought with a grin as she un-wiped the Chuckle. Going over the interviews and notes she’d entered, Charlie realized she had made a connection between Crowley and the Challenges. The age of passing had risen over the past decade, and the challengers Crowley had spoken with were unanimously pessimistic about their chances, while others were more excited and hopeful. It was an interesting angle for her article, but she couldn’t put unconfirmed suspicions in print. She could, however, point out the trend of age of passing rising. After sending out a request for the full list of challengers and results, Charlie began shaping her article, including quotes from the challengers she’d spoken with and data on the age trends going back to the beginning of the dome, concluding by citing other sources which suggested the age should be going down, not up, and asking readers to question the gradual change themselves. At the end, she included the list of candidates who’d passed, along with this year’s average age of passing; 19.5, which was slightly lower than last year, but still higher than it should be.

After several proofreads (one for flow, one for grammar and punctuation, one for accuracy of information, one to make sure there was only fact in the article, not opinion, and a final one to check for flow again), Charlie sent the draft off to NN, where the editors would cut as they felt necessary and do their own proofreads. Then, if the length was still sufficient, it would be sent to the editor-in-chief, who would do their own proofread and either approve or deny it for publication. If the article was too short after editing, or if the chief denied it, it would be sent back, and Charlie would have to do a rewrite. Her pieces always exceeded the required length by a good margin, and rarely had extraneous words or flowery language, but she still had a fair number that were returned to her for reworking. Usually, this was due to information being cut; ‘readers don’t care about the environment beyond the dome’ or ‘recyc efficiency is irrelevant’ or ‘no one needs to know how or why Booths work’. Never mind that the information tied in with the main focus of the article. It was almost like the people in charge didn’t want readers to think, which was ridiculous. The whole purpose of the domes was to give people time and freedom to pursue individual thought and discovery. Wasn’t it?

 

*****

 

Charlie blinked at the computer announcing the arrival of Meg. She hadn’t been expecting the young woman so soon, and she definitely didn’t expect the palm reader not to provide a last name. Opening the door, she found herself assaulted by soft, burgundy lips, pushed back into the room by the action as the door swished closed.

“Sorry,” Meg grinned, breaking the kiss as suddenly as she’d started. “Had to make it look good in case anyone was watching. Told ‘em I had so much fun with you yesterday I’d decided to make you my new pet.”

“Pet?” Charlie asked, fingers ghosting absently over her own lips in reaction to the abrupt cessation of the pleasurable press of warm, soft lips. 

Meg shrugged with a sly smirk. “Hey, gave me an excuse to see you again. Said I’d instructed you to want to fuck my brains out next time we met.”

“Wait, you didn’t, did you?” Charlie asked, suddenly worried.

“Considering neither of us is naked or fucking right now, I’d say no, I didn’t,” Meg replied sardonically.

“You said ‘want to fuck’ not that I’d actually do it,” Charlie pointed out.

“Are you saying you do want to fuck my brains out?”

“Maaaaybe,” Charlie grinned.

“Good to know. Maaaaybe I’ll let you,” Meg chuckled. “Gonna buy me a drink first?”

Charlie laughed. “What’s your poison?” she asked, pleased that Meg appeared to be a fan of classic flat-screen vids too.

“Your synth able to whip up any good whiskey?”

“Whiskey, yes. Good, no. Sucks that Chuck took all the good qualities of alcohol out of the synth recipes decades ago,” Charlie replied.

“True, but hey, it still tastes good. Besides, nothing wrong with swallowing down a virgin drink,” Meg smirked.

“I prefer a more experienced taste,” laughed Charlie as she synthed up a couple whiskeys. 

“Also good to know,” Meg winked. “Though there is such a thing as too much experience,” she added, smile fading as they sat at the table and Charlie handed Meg her drink.

“I take it you’re ready to get down to the real reason for the visit?” Charlie asked, and Meg nodded. “Mind if I take notes?”

“I don’t know. If what I’m about to say ever got to the wrong eyes or ears, I’d be worse than dead.”

“No worries, I’m a techie. My encryption and security is nearly impossible to break. I’ve got an in with a very reliable, high-ranking sec; he’s the only one I’d let see it, and only to confirm the validity of what’s going on.”

“It’s not Michael, is it?” Meg asked, brows creasing.

“No, not him. Why? Is he part of whatever’s going on?”

“Not part of, but he’s allowing it to continue. If it gets to him, it’ll get back to Lucifer and, like I said, I’ll be worse than dead.”

“You said that yesterday, too, ‘worse than dead’. What could be worse than death?”

“Babe, you don’t want to know. And you’re about to find out. Go ahead and transcribe, just please, please, make sure no one else gets it,” Meg replied grimly.

“You’re safe with me, promise,” Charlie affirmed as she turned on her Chuckle.

“Hey, didn’t Crowley wipe that?” Meg asked.

“Thought he did. Told you, I’m a techie. And I think I’ve relearned everything he made me forget.”

“I knew I had the right person to tell this to. Now, where to start? I think it’ll be best to begin with my own story. That way, it’s not just things I’ve heard or seen, but what I’ve experienced myself…

“I was found wandering the streets of Heaven when I was around five years old. Don’t remember anything from before that, but I could speak, read, write. Plenty of knowledge there; history, math, tech, science. More knowledge than most five-year-olds would have. There were lots of things I knew, I just had no memory of how I knew them. No one ever figured out where I came from, so I was raised at the LM, with the other orphans. Krissy Chambers was 2; her dad, a sec, had been her only family, and he was killed in the line of duty. I was the next oldest. Jesse Cuevas was twelve; orphaned when the brother who’d been raising him was killed in an accident at The Zoo. Cesar Ateo was fourteen, and very protective of Jesse. Never said how he’d wound up orphaned. Alastair was sixteen and everyone warned me to stay away from him, even Claire, who was the teacher watching over the orphans. Having passed his Challenge at fourteen, Alastair worked as an enforcer sec in W8, but even though he had been assigned his own place in S7, he was allowed to remain at the orphanage until eighteen. He took advantage of the free victim pool.

“Since there’s no crime in Heaven without physical proof and a sec witness, we couldn’t stop him. He kept the bruises and cuts to places no one would see. Alastair seemed to revel in causing pain, telling me I had to keep quiet while he carved into me or he’d move on to Krissy. Did the same thing with Cesar and Jesse, telling each he’d hurt the other if they didn’t do what he wanted. The pain was nearly unbearable, but after a while he started using vibrators, which still hurt, but so much less than the torture. Offered a choice between torture and sex, I always picked sex. It even started to feel good after a while, no matter how rough it was. A year later, after I’d had my ‘sixth’ birthday (the anniversary of the day I was found, since my real birthday and age are unknown), Alastair moved on from toys and started fucking me himself. I don’t think he can even get it up unless there’s force and violence involved. By then, I was already his favorite, which sucked for me, but when Cesar started fighting back, Alastair decided he and Jesse weren’t worth his time, and Krissy was still too young to be interesting, so at least they were safe.

“Finally, Alastair turned eighteen and had to leave. The orphanage breathed a collective sigh of relief. Krissy seemed to have escaped unscathed, but the rest of us; we never left home other than when Claire took us on a group outing to The Garden or The Zoo. We were safe. Should have been safe. Nothing to do but wait for the bruises to fade. 

“Everything was better for a few years. Cesar, Jesse and Krissy seemed fine. Cesar passed his challenge at fifteen, Jesse at fourteen. They both wound up working in The Garden; they live together in E7 now. A new kid arrived at the orphanage; four-year-old Ruby, who was found wandering the streets, same as Alastair and I had been. That was when I was ten. 

“I was slated to go into security but hadn’t decided which branch. My original placement had been for sci-tech investigation, however, after Alastair, law was tempting. Maybe I could find a way to save others from the type of horrors I had faced. For a while, I studied both paths, but after a few years I realized that chemistry was my true strength, so I stuck with my original goal.

“When I was twelve, I began to notice something wrong. Alastair had been gone for five years, but I began finding heal spots on my skin. Within the space of a few months, I wound up with white crescents crisscrossed all over my body. It was actually quite pretty. But it was also obviously Alastair’s work. Even though I hadn’t seen Alastair since he’d moved out, he was hurting me, and I had no memory of it happening. With special permission to take the Challenge early, I passed when I was twelve, though I wasn’t allowed to move to my assigned place in S8 for two more years. During that time, the heal marks on my body multiplied.” Meg paused her narration, raising her arms to the light fluidly, gaze drifting over her porcelain, unmarked skin in admiration. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Not a single blemish. Deceptive. It’s all scar. Every inch of my skin, all one big heal spot. Alastair is an artist,” she shivered. “I never figured out how he was doing it. Didn’t know until after I was eighteen, when Alastair allowed me to keep my memories of what happened one day while I was drugged. They’d been selling me. For sex. Prostitution, it used to be called before the dome. After the dome, there was no need for people to sell themselves, because everything was provided, and the dome always found work for everyone. And with every home equipped with a holo-room, people could program up companions for sex, so there was no one buying, either.

“Apparently, Lucifer had approached Alastair with the business proposal. He had a drug that made people pliable and allowed memories of the time to be overwritten. As long as they didn’t offer anything illegal, they were sure to find a market. Consensual sex with barely legal teens was Lucifer’s idea. Prostitution isn’t illegal in Heaven. Though the consent could be an issue, but customers don’t know about the drug used. And they don’t question the consent form they themselves are asked to sign, which they assume is consenting to the sex. No one ever reads it; they’re actually consenting to being filmed. Alastair added the torture shows, using the technicality that he wasn’t violent; he was calm and precise. And there’s nothing remotely illegal about watching someone else commit violence anyway. Crowley had a lot of underground type connections, so they brought him on board next. He wound up being the one to handle most of the organizational part of the business. Lucifer talked his brother Michael into overlooking it with the suggestion that teens would have less time for study if they were secretly working, which would raise the age of passing, giving them longer work hours, which was good for the dome, right? More labor. Michael doesn’t know about the drugs or torture shows though, he just thinks his brother talked a few teens into earning some extra credit hours.

“The kids don’t get the credit hours though; everything goes into Luci’s account. Then he transfers some to Alastair and Crowley. And me now. The purpose of allowing me to remember was that business had grown and they needed another torturer for shows. There was no way I wanted to hurt anyone the way I’d been hurt. By that point, my ability to feel pain, both emotionally and physically, had dulled to the point that I rarely felt even a twinge, but I still remembered pain enough to not want to inflict it on anyone else. However, since the subjects would be drugged, I could make them appear to be in pain while secretly instructing them not to feel anything and just pretend they were being hurt. At least they’d be better off with me than with Alastair, who got off on pain and power.

“In the three years since then, I’ve been playing a role; being the sadist they wanted while secretly helping as many of their victims as I could. They limit the torture to 4-5 kids, to lessen the likelihood of being discovered. But the ones used for sex? Probably around two thirds of the current Challenge age population are being sold without even knowing it. Lucifer tested the drug on his younger brothers first, modifying it until its efficacy met his expectations. He does group shows with his little brother Gabriel and his favorite, a boy named Sam. Has them screw each other while customers watch, then lets the customers go at Gabe while he does Sam; no one else is permitted touch Sam. Usually Alastair directs Gabriel, but sometimes, when the sadist isn’t controlling himself properly, Luc has me do it. Gabe isn’t supposed to be injured or tortured, but Alastair has a hard-on for the poor kid. Secretly goes after him any chance he gets. And the damn sadist has learned to use the drug to torture without ever actually even touching the kid. Just tells him everything feels real, then uses insubstantial holo-tools to cut or whip or break bones. Lucifer isn’t much better. He prefers mental torture; showing Sam holograms of his brother or Gabe burning alive while he fucks the poor kid. Things like that.

“Since my expertise is in chemistry, I’ve studied the drug they- we use. The way it works is beyond my understanding. Somehow, adding your saliva to the drug makes the person injected obedient only to you. You can direct them to do everything someone else tells them to, but your orders trump all. Even without being able to figure out how it works, I have found a way to counteract it. But that doesn’t do much good; can’t use it on myself once I’m already dosed. And I do still get drugged from time to time. Even though Alastair has new victims, I’m still his favorite. I’m close to a vaccine, but not quite there yet. Maybe if I could work with another chemist, or bio-chemist, we could get it right, but… there’s still something that just eludes me, and I’m beginning to worry I won’t be able to do it on my own.”

Meg stopped talking, twirling her empty whisky glass on the table, next to Charlie’s, which the reporter had given to Meg halfway through the tale. Synthing a couple more drinks, Charlie pressed a fresh whiskey into Meg’s hands, downed her own, and refilled it. “That’s… wow,” Charlie sighed. “I don’t even know what to say. We have to put a stop to this. Like, yesterday. Like, years ago. Why don’t we have time machines yet?”

“Agreed, but I don’t know how. They have Michael’s partial approval and are careful to avoid anything technically illegal. Which is far easier than it should be; I get Chuck’s whole freedom schtick, but we need more and better laws,” Meg replied.

“But you’re a sec; you can give valid testimony against them. And if they’ve recorded everything, that’s physical evidence, right?”

“Except for the part where I’m complicit. Anything I say against them will draw the noose around my own neck too. Not to mention that they won’t get convicted of breaking any laws. Then I’ll disappear, and Alastair won’t bother drugging me anymore; he’ll revel in me having to remember everything he does. And it’ll last forever; he won’t let me die.”

“I’ll make Uncle Zar promise you immunity before I let him read the transcript. And I’ll help him; we’ll make sure not to go after Lucifer, Alastair, and Crowley until we have a guaranteed conviction, and even then, we won’t use your testimony unless there’s no alternative. Although they might get suspicious when you aren’t convicted with them. But once they’re convicted they’ll either be dead or banished, so you’ll be safe,” Charlie assured her guest.

“Safe. I don’t think that word has meaning anymore. Not as long as Croat exists. Not unless there’s a working vaccine,” Meg countered.

“Croat?”

Meg shrugged. “That’s what Luc calls the drug. Croat.”

“Huh. Weird name. Ok, well, Naomi is the best bio-chemist in the dome, possibly in the world. I’ll as Zar if she can-“

“No,” Meg interrupts. “She’s a Shurley. I know the younger kids aren’t in on it, but Luc and Michael are, so maybe their parents are too.”

“Look, Meg, Lucifer’s a bad seed, and Michael’s too trusting of his older brother, but the rest of the Shurleys aren’t bad, really. Well, Chuck’s a bit laissez-faire about pretty much everything, and Naomi’s a bit too focused on her work, but I don’t think they’d allow what’s going on if they knew about it, right?” Charlie realized as she talked that neither parent would care what their son was doing, providing it didn’t interfere in their own pursuits. But Balthazar would definitely put a stop to it if he knew, even if it meant having to execute or banish his own half-brother. Almost definitely. He was a good detective, and Charlie trusted him. But maybe she should feel him out on the subject before getting into it, just in case. And edit out any parts of the transcript that would lead a reader to figure out who the information came from, only as a precaution. 

“How would I know? I don’t know them. But I know Luc, and even if they aren’t in on it, he’ll be keeping tabs on them; they’re the only authority higher than Michael in the dome. Also, a lot of adults in Heaven are customers, especially pre-domers. Customers who’d be likely to report back to Lucifer if they were approached about anything to do with his business. I think you have good instincts -no one else has ever caught on to Crowley- but you gotta promise me you’ll be extra careful with this. For your own sake, not just mine.”

“Hey, I’m good at what I do. I’ll be careful. Rushing this would do more harm than good. I know you just met me; we barely know each other, but you can trust me,” Charlie promised.

“I’ll trust you, on two conditions. If I disappear, you’ve gotta find me. Don’t leave me in Alastair’s hands; I’d rather be dead,” Meg replied.

“I swear, I won’t let him get you. What’s the other condition?”

“Help me not think about anything else tonight. I’d rather be screaming in pleasure than from nightmares.”

“I think I can do that,” Charlie smiled. “Can you show me how to synth up one of those vibrators? I haven’t had time to figure out how to program it in yet.”

Meg laughed. “You’re gonna love this. It’s actually already programmed into the system,” she said, going over to the synthesizer and ordering up ‘Chuck Fun Time 17’. A copy of the toy they’d used yesterday appeared.

“Oh, wow. And it’s 17? That mean he has at least 16 other toys programmed in there?” Charlie asked.

“Probably more, but they aren’t named in numerical order. One, two, and three work, but not four. Five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-th-“

“So just the prime numbers? How high have you tried?”

“Prime numbers? Shit, why didn’t I realize that? It woulda made checking a whole lot easier. I tried every number through thirty, but got bored and gave up. Some of the shit that popped up was pretty damn kinky, and there were several items I wasn’t even sure how to use, though I’m sure Alastair and Luc probably do. Luc’s the one who discovered his dad’s fun time program,” Meg chuckled.

“Well, we can experiment with the synth another day. For now, I think this one’ll do for fucking your brains out,” Charlie grinned, picking up the vibrator and pressing Meg gently against the wall for a thorough kissing.

 

By the time they passed out in each other’s arms, sometime near dawn, they were both too exhausted to be haunted by bad dreams.

 

*****

 

Next chapter: Missing Support

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’d planned on some CharM smut to lighten the mood and break up the never-ending exposition, but it just didn’t seem to fit with the flow, sorry. Next chapter will focus on Dean and Cas, maybe that’ll be a bit lighter. Sorry for all the heavy crap in this one, but it’s an integral part of the story.


	8. Missing Support

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean tries to get Castiel to open up about his experiences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** T
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** none
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** none
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Dean Winchester, Castiel Novak
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** denial

"Sammy! Where the hell have you been?" Dean demanded when Sam finally got back.

Sam gave his brother his best bitch face, too emotionally drained to handle being yelled at. "Rowena's. Can we do this later? I need some time alone."

Dean opened his mouth to argue, but stopped at the frown Sam's face had dropped into. "Gabe's still in there," he warned as his younger brother headed to his room.

"Thanks. And Dean? Sorry I worried you," Sam replied as the door swished open and shut behind him.

"Was that Sam?" Cas asked as he came out of the bioc.

"Yeah. You were right; he was with Rowena," Dean replied, sitting back at the table.

"It was a logical conclusion; he probably didn't want Gabe to know, so left without telling anyone."

"Yeah, but he should know better than to go anywhere alone. After the past few days, I mean."

"I get the impression that he doesn't want to trouble anyone," Cas shrugged.

"Yeah, being raised with Dad the way he is, Sammy kinda tried to grow up too fast. He always felt like asking for anything for himself was burdening me, since Dad never had time for either of us," Dean explained. "I've tried to tell him over and over that I _like_ spending time with him and helping in any way I can, but he never seems to believe it."

“You've basically raised him in place of your father after your mother's passing, right?" 

"Well, yeah, I guess. Dad hasn't been... Mom's death kinda broke him."

"I can't speak for your brother, but myself, I've always felt a bit... not guilty, per se, but saddened maybe, that Balthazar had to raise me when it wasn't his responsibility. Especially since Naomi and Father were around, just busy. I know he never minded in the least, and he loves me, but that doesn't change the fact that I took up years of his time. Perhaps Sam feels the same, maybe more so because the time he took was your childhood, when you were supposed to be enjoying yourself, growing, learning, shaping into a man."

"You've thought about this before," Dean stated.

"I have," Cas admitted. "There's always been a feeling of... kinship? Like souls? between me and Sam. Nothing like he and Gabriel share, more like unrelated siblings. Which is good, I suppose, since we're likely to become brothers-in-law."

"What?" Dean asked, wondering if Castiel had noticed Dean's attraction. It was only because their brothers were close, and Castiel had taken care of Sam, and he wasn't bad looking, for a guy, and-

"You haven't noticed? I think Sam and Gabe have been destined for each other since they met, Luc-made obstacles aside. Actually, after having discovered Lucifer's machinations, I think they've gotten even closer." Cas replied, and Dean breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, they were pretty inseparable for a long time. To tell you the truth, I always kinda envied their friendship. There're so many people in the dome, all trapped in this huge bubble, yet everyone seems so distant; always wrapped up in what they're doing themselves, never bothering to connect with other people. Kinda sad, don't you think, Castiel?"

"You know, if you wanted to connect with other people, you could start by listening when they talk; I know I've asked you numerous times to call me Cas."

"Sorry, I know, it's just... Castiel is such a pretty name. I kinda like hearing it," Dean replied in his defense.

Castiel frowned, heat rising to his cheeks. "But everyone calls me Cas."

"I'm not everyone?" Dean shrugged with a sheepish smile. "But, if it really bothers you, I can try to remember."

Pinning Dean with an intense, unfathomable stare, Cas looked him over for several interminable moments before he finally spoke. "If you really prefer using my full name, you may do so."

Dean smiled. "Thanks, Castiel."

"You're teasing me," Cas accused, eyes narrowing.

"Nope, not at all, Castiel," Dean laughed. "I'll stop, sorry. It's just so cute to see you blush."

"I'm blushing?" Cas frowned, running his fingers over the deepened heat in his cheeks.

"Hey, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But I really will stop. You gonna be working today?" Dean asked.

Cas tilted his head curiously at the subject change, but went with it. "I have to work on the security program I've been developing, but I can do that here. If you need to work, I can keep an eye on our brothers."

Dean sighed with a rueful smile. "Yeah, I shoulda gotten more hours done earlier in the week, before the Challenge, but I'm horrible with procrastination. If I can get in six hours today or tomorrow, I'll be good."

"What kind of work do you do?"

"It's only mechanical maintenance and repair. Once in a while I handle emergencies, but most of the time it's just minor things that need fixing or upkeep; no rush."

"Fixing things, and keeping them working, is important work. There's nothing 'only' about that," Cas replied, indignant on Dean’s behalf.

"Yeah, but it's not like I'm a sec, saving people, protecting things. I just tinker with machines. And I'm hopeless with computers, so I can't even work on anything too complex. Just engines and turbines and shit like that," Dean protested.

"Perhaps, but no matter how technologically advanced a construct is, if the basic mechanics behind it don't work, it's nothing but wasted materials. I couldn't design security programs without the mechanical processes functioning for them to regulate," Cas pointed out.

Dean shrugged. "Maybe, but lots of people can do my job. You're the only one who can do yours. Sometimes I wonder what'll happen in a hundred, hundred-fifty years or so, when the dome is full. Will there be time and space to expand, or will they start kicking out the grunts like me, keeping only the smartest, best workers."

"There's still room beyond the dome for one more expansion. And even if there weren't, Dean, you are smart. You passed your Challenge at sixteen, while spending more time raising your brother than studying, right?" Cas pressed.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't like-" 

"And Father would never force people to leave. He might ask for volunteers to relocate, or make a connected dome or something, but he thinks everyone has something to contribute if given the time and opportunity."

"Not a bad philosophy, though I'm not sure I could subscribe to it myself. But then, I'm not really one for looking on the bright side. Or philosophizing in general. Just kinda take life one day at a time, and whatever happens, happens. Good or bad, you deal with it and move on," Dean shrugged.

"Some things are harder to get past than others," Cas frowned, gaze growing distant.

"Definitely," Dean said sympathetically. "How come you didn't talk with Rowena yesterday too?"

"It was a long time ago," Cas shrugged.

"And you've never really talked about it, have you? Even if it's in the past, that don't have to mean you're past it."

"I don't like to think about it," Cas scowled. "At the time, I told Naomi and Balthazar everything they needed to hear. Since then, no, I've never wanted to talk about it. It's not like I remember what happened, just the nightmares. And there's no guarantee those are completely accurate; dreams have a way of distorting things. Besides, it's not like it affects my day to day life."

"Doesn’t it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when's the last time you dated someone?" Dean asked. Not that he knew Castiel very well, but he suspected the guy didn't get around much, despite being attractive and smart.

"Four or five years ago; a girl named April. She asked me out so I went along with it, but I realized pretty quickly it wasn't for me." Cas replied. "I've never had much interest in dating, or sex."

"Yeah, but what happened was before you'd even been old enough to be interested. So how can you know for sure whether that's had an impact on your desire, or lack of, for sex or dating?"

"I..." Cas started, then took a deep breath, exhaling in a puff of air. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Sorry, man, I wasn't trying to pry. And hey, it's not like I'm qualified to help if you wanted it anyway; couldn't do more than listen, which I would, any time. But it wouldn't hurt for you to talk to a professional, would it?" Dean offered.

"I don't want... I don't know. Maybe? I'll think about it," Cas conceded. "What time are you heading to work?" he added, clearly closing the subject.

"Probably after dinner. If I get to work around 10, I can work till 16 and be back shortly after; still have time for 7-8 hours of sleep."

"Dean, I don't like the idea of you being out after dark. And you work alone, don't you? It's not safe; not with Luc angry over you separating him and Sam."

"You really think he'd come after me?" Dean asked. He'd been being careful anyway, but didn't think the guy cared enough about anything to want revenge.

"I told you before; he doesn't like having his toys stolen. He wouldn't go after you himself though; he'd probably send Alastair," Cas replied with a shudder.

Dean echoed the motion. "That's a terrifying thought. Alastair's creepy as hell; scared me way more than Lucifer. And last time I saw him, he seemed to have an unnatural interest in me."

"Maybe it would be best if you take some vacation time until Zar puts a stop to them? Or at the very least, refrain from working alone or after dark? There must be projects that require more than one mechanic at a time?"

Dean nodded. "I'm not gonna put my life on hold just 'cause someone doesn't know how to play well with others, but taking some extra precautions wouldn't hurt. Work can wait 'til tomorrow. And I'll see if there are any joint projects that can be done. If not, maybe your brother can have a sec hang out while I work? Not that I like the idea of letting someone else protect me, but fixing stuff can get kinda loud. Makes it too easy to be snuck up on."

“That would be for the best,” Cas agreed.

 

*****

 

“Hey, Castiel?” Dean asked as they were getting ready for bed that night.

“Yes?”

“Just out of curiosity, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but has anyone asked you out since that girl a few years ago?”

Cas frowned as he climbed over to the side of the bed against the wall. In a normal household, the holo-room would be programed into a bedroom for guests. Here, it was where Sam and Dean’s father slept. In fact, Cas hadn’t even seen John Winchester come out of the room yet, even though this was his second night staying there. But Gabriel was more than happy to share Sam’s bed, and Cas didn’t mind sharing with Dean. After all, the Winchesters were giving them sanctuary from a home where Luc would have far too many opportunities to drug them. As a guest, he felt duty-bound to cause as little trouble for his hosts as possible. Which also meant he should probably answer Dean’s question. “A few people have, yes,” he replied.

“So you turned them down, then?”

“I did. As I said earlier, I have little-to-no interest in dating or sex.”

“So, if someone asked you out now, you’d just say no?”

“Dean, why are you asking this? I told you it’s not a result of what happened to me, it’s just the way I am,” Cas replied, perplexed at the repetitive questioning.

“That’s not… I was just curious is all. Nevermind; let’s just go to sleep,” Dean sighed, getting into bed beside Castiel. He hadn’t even realized he was attracted to him until they’d shared a bed the night before. Lying beside Castiel in the quiet darkness, the desire to touch had crept up on him, an awareness of proximity that had kept him awake long after his guest had fallen asleep. Mulling over the past few days, it dawned on Dean that he’d liked Castiel since they’d first met, when he’d offered to help find Sam. “I wasn’t trying to pry, or suggest it was because of what happened, I just wondered,” he said, long enough after having settled in that Castiel was nearly asleep.

“What?”

“Sorry, I’m just talking in my sleep. You know, though, anything you need, I’m here for you. Right?”

“Sure, Dean,” Cas replied, and Dean could almost hear the scrunched eyebrows of Cas’s frown.

Turning away from Castiel, Dean settled himself as close to the edge of the bed as he could without danger of falling off. Partly, it was to give the other man space; he’d offered to let him sleep on the outside, so that he wouldn’t be trapped between Dean and the wall, but Castiel said he preferred the inside. He used an ag sleeper at home; beds were new to him and didn’t have an ag field keeping him from falling off. Sleeping between Dean and the wall eased that fear. So not making Castiel feel trapped was one reason Dean was balanced near the edge. The other reason was that Dean could feel the other man’s presence beside him, and that made it kinda hard to sleep. In more than one sense of the word. “G’night Castiel,” he whispered softly into the darkness. The only answer was the soft, even breathing of Cas’s slumber.

 

*****

 

Next chapter: Missing Nuances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Could really use some feedback on how the story’s going ^.^ if you're shy, feel free to shoot me a private message on [my dreamwidth](https://cutelittlekitty.dreamwidth.org/)


	9. Missing Nuances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie talks to Balthazar, Balthazar talks to Michael, Sam and Gabe talk to each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** M
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** description of scars, brief mention of trauma/triggers
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Sam Winchester/Gabriel Shurley
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Charlie Bradbury, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Michael Shurley, Sam Winchester, Gabriel Shurley
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** plot, scars, sabriel tenderness

“Char, one of these days, you’re going to wind up getting burned. Why would you try and investigate something like this on your own?” Balthazar chastised when Charlie had finished her story.

Imagine if she’d told him the truth of how her informant had come to confide in her. Fortunately, Charlie knew Uncle Zar well enough to make something up, crossing her fingers behind her back as she did, in the ancient gesture that made lying not wrong. “It’s not like I could just come to you and say ‘hey, there’s this guy in a weird suit talking to teenagers, you should check it out’. You’d have sent me home; told me I was working too hard, jumping at shadows. I was going to tell you after the Challenges, once I’d realized that whatever he was up to was causing kids to fail, but the informant approached me first, promising to come to me as soon as they could safely do so, and give me information. After that, I figured I should wait, so I’d have more to tell you.”

“And just who is this informant? How do you know you can trust him?” Balthazar demanded.

“I can’t tell you who it is; I promised I wouldn’t. And even telling you as much as I have could put them in danger; they’re unwillingly working for Lucifer. Once he knows someone’s spilled the beans, it won’t take long for him to figure out who.”

“Spilled the beans?”

“Really, Uncle Zar, you need to watch some classic flat-screens,” Charlie replied with exasperation. “It means told their secrets.”

“Ah. Right. Well, I can’t give this informant immunity if I don’t know his name. And how would Luc know it was someone working for him? Maybe we got the information from a customer,” Balthazar suggested.

Charlie shook her head. “The customers don’t know about the drug. As far as they know, there’s nothing illegal about the operation, so why would they tell security about it? You know most residents tend to avoid mentioning anything they know or do that’s not illegal but could be made so if sec knew about them.”

“Including you?” Balthazar asked with a raised eyebrow and knowing smile.

“There’s no law saying I have to answer that question,” Charlie grinned. They’d had similar discussions before, usually when Zar wanted Charlie to help him do something that would be made illegal if it were known. “And there’s no law against anything Lucifer’s organization is doing, either. That’s the problem. So, what do we do now?”

“We? _We_ don’t do anything. Luc’s dangerous; I don’t want you in his sights. Family or no, the guy has no conscience, and no empathy. He cares for nothing beyond his own desires and comfort. Not entirely his fault, of course, but that doesn’t excuse his actions. I want you to go home and keep that cute little nose of yours out of this.”

“You know that’s not gonna happen, like, ever. I’m helping, and if you don’t like it, I’ll do it on my own.”

Balthazar sighed. “You will, too, won’t you? Don’t answer, I already know. Well, the first thing to do is petition Michael to make any chemical that removes or limits a person’s free will illegal.”

“Michael already knows about Lucifer’s business,” Charlie pointed out.

“But he doesn’t know about the drug, right? I won’t mention any connection to Luc, simply cite that Cassie and Gabriel were drugged and forced to act under another’s directives, and any such drugs should immediately be made illegal.”

“I don’t get why it isn’t already illegal? I mean, hypnotism’s illegal, other than for medical use. The dome’s built on the idea of free will, right? There should be a law against anything that removes it.”

“Should be doesn’t mean is. There are many things that should be outlawed or should be legally protected that are overlooked as being better as ‘rules’ or ‘common sense’ than being made into actual law. However, I see no reason for Michael to reject making a law against this type of drug,” Balthazar replied, leading Char out of his office and to the TCs. Ignoring her protests about being a ‘grown ass woman’, he still saw her all the way home, only partly in order to synth a well-balanced meal for the two of them. Mostly he was worried this organization of Luc’s might have caught his somewhat-niece in her snooping and have plans to put a stop to it.

 

*****

 

“Why the bloody-hell not?” Balthazar demanded, unable to understand his half-brother’s refusal.

“Father doesn’t like laws. I see no reason to enact one over two isolated incidents,” Michael replied calmly.

“Isolated incidents? Why would you think the two I’ve uncovered are the only cases?”

“Do you have proof otherwise?”

Balthazar thought about Char’s unnamed source, and the danger to them should their involvement be revealed. “No, but it stands to reason…”

“Guesswork and supposition can not be made the basis for law. There is no merit in your request, therefore it is denied,” Michael replied with finality. “Will I see you at dinner tonight? The house has been rather quiet since Castiel and Gabriel have been staying with friends.”

“Apologies, I’m afraid I have some late work to attend,” Balthazar replied, managing to keep the anger from his voice with over a century of practice. Taking his leave, he went back to his office, pulling up the map he’d kept running to track the disappearances and reappearances of teenagers. Now that he knew exactly what was happening to the youngsters, and where they disappeared to, he was desperate to put a stop to it. However, unless what was happening was against the law, he had no legal recourse. Damn it all. Balthazar was all for freedom, but there were limits to what was acceptable to do with such liberty. The freedoms of one should never infringe upon the freedoms of another, and taking away people’s will was infringement of the worst kind.

The question now, of course, was what to do about it? Balthazar hated to admit it, but he was stumped. Perhaps a meeting of minds was in order. A wider variety of input often offered different perspectives that could trigger solutions. In quick order, he sent missives off to Castiel and Charlie, asking them to bring their cohorts relevant to the case to his home this evening if they could. Halfway through a similar request to Naomi, he paused, then erased the message. Naomi and Rowena knew about Cassie, Gabe, and Sam, but not about the larger operation responsible for their cases. For now, it might be best to leave them out of it.

 

*****

 

Sam helped Gabriel lay down, then turned to leave, planning on synthing him a glass of water. Stopping, he looked down to where his friend’s hand had a death-grip around Sam’s wrist, eyes pleading for him to stay. “I’m just getting some water. I’ll be right back, promise,” he soothed, gently extracting himself from the grip. “Okay?”

“Ok,” Gabe replied hoarsely, using his freed hand to rub at his red, tear-stained face.

Quickly as he could, Sam dashed to the synth and back, though he took a few extra seconds to synth up a strawberry-fudge sundae in addition to the water. As he went back into the room, Gabe gave a weak smile, sitting up and holding his hands out greedily for the sweet treat. “Sugar can fix almost anything for you,” Sam chuckled weakly, handing over the dessert.

“Almost. God, Sam, I can’t believe… and that was just one memory. What else has been done to us? What else have you been… forced to watch,” Gabe asked, breath catching in half a hiccup at the end, as the tears threatened to resume. Shoveling in a mouthful of sundae, he used it to stave off the waterworks. For now, at least. He’d cried for over an hour in Rowena’s office, after the regression session. Sam had sat patiently with him the whole time, sometimes just holding his hand, other times wrapping the smaller boy in his arms. Now that they both knew the depths of their mutual feelings, the thought of Sam having had to watch while… it was just too horrible for words.

“I wish you had taken my advice and only gone through the first part of the memory. I understand, though, why you needed to know everything, just… wanting to protect you is part of who I am. Even if I wasn’t able to protect you back then, I wish I could have protected you from the memory of it,” Sam sighed, sitting on the bed beside his friend.

“Pretty sure my need to protect you is just as strong,” Gabe commented between bites. “And you’re right; I needed to know everything, no matter how bad it was. Besides, even if it wasn’t under the best circumstances, I’m glad we both have the memory of our first time back.” After a few minutes of silence as Gabriel finished most of his sundae, he put down the spoon and set the sundae glass on the table beside the bed, licking his lips to clean up stray, syrupy spots. “Sam… you know I’ve never wanted to touch, or be touched by, anyone but you, right?”

“I know, Gabe. I feel the same about you,” Sam replied, scooting closer to trace a hand tentatively over Gabe’s cheek. He was rewarded with a soft smile as the shorter man got to his knees, crawling closer to wrap his arms hesitantly around his friend, lips brushing against Sam’s gently.

“Will you… will you look for me? I’ve never seen my back; had no idea anything was even there,” asked Gabe.

“Of course, but Gabe, you know it doesn’t matter to me; doesn’t change how I feel about you, right? It was just one cut, and Ala… he healed it with nano-medics, right? Doesn’t hurt; no residual pain?”

“I know, I just want you to tell me what it looks like. Maybe… if it’s not too weird, trace a finger over it so I can feel where it’s at?” Gabe replied quietly as he sat back and hesitantly removed his shirt.

“Hey,” Sam said, thumbing over Gabe’s cheek and drawing his gaze. “I can check any time; it doesn’t have to be right now if you aren’t ready.”

“No, I’m ready. Just nervous. Even so, I’d prefer to know how bad it is sooner rather than later, Gabe insisted, leaning into Sam’s touch for a moment before taking a deep breath and turning around. Sam’s involuntary gasp had Gabe trembling. “Is it that bad?”

“Shit. Gabe, it’s… there’s more than one heal-spot,” Sam replied, voice breathless with an emotion wavering somewhere between awe and horror.

“How many more?” the smaller boy asked, frightened.

“…Too many to count. It’s… Gabriel, it’s wings. Layers upon layers of clearly defined feathers, covering…” he carefully touched Gabe’s waistband, pulling back just enough to look lower. “It looks like they might even cover the back of your thighs.”

“Wings? Feathers?”

“Gabe, I feel awful for even thinking it, let alone saying it, but… they’re… beautiful. I mean, it’s horrible; I hate how they were made and by who, but…” Sam’s fingers were tracing over the white lines before he even realized, entranced by the cruel artistry.

“Sam?” Gabe asked, looking over his shoulder. Silent tears were tracing paths down the taller boy’s cheeks as his fingers continued ghosting over white lines. “Sam, it’s ok,” he said, turning around to crawl into his friend’s lap, gently brushing away his tears with a thumb. “I don’t want you to feel guilty for liking what you see when you look at me. Just like I don’t want to feel guilty for having enjoyed something you were forced to do.”

“You don’t need to feel guilty about that, Gabe. I both enjoyed and wanted it. Even if I’d had a choice, if you had offered the option, I would’ve taken it. Maybe we both just need to work on accepting our reactions and living with them,” Sam replied, voice husky with emotion.

“Yeah, this is all a lot to process. And after the session with Rowena I think I’m all processed out. Hey, do you think maybe, if you don’t have any plans for the next few hours, we could take a nap together? I’m tired, but I don’t want to be alone right now.”

‘Sure, of course,” Sam assured, guiding Gabriel to the bed as he lay down behind the shorter man.

Snuggling back against his friend’s broader chest, Gabe frowned, rolled over, and tried getting comfortable that way. But even if he hadn’t still been shirtless, he still would’ve felt too exposed. With a sigh, he scrabbled over Sam, then pressed up against his back. Though he’d rather be wrapped in strong arms, there was no way he could sleep without the protective body between him and the rest of the world. Sam must have read his mind though; he rolled over and pulled Gabe close, his hold both tender and firm. Smiling contentedly, Gabe rested his ear against Sam’s chest, listening to the strong, mostly steady beat. “Hey, Sam,” he asked after a few minutes of silence that was somehow still easy, even after they’d both regained the memory of their involuntary first time together, “We _will_ get to a point where we can, you know, consummate our relationship while we’re both under our own command, right? I mean, without having flashbacks and trauma and stuff?”

“We will. I’m sure it’ll take a lot of sessions with Rowena, plus time and effort, but we’ll get there. Hell, the fact that once we allowed ourselves contact we’ve been touching each other ever since, is a pretty encouraging sign, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. I just hope that doesn’t disappear when we start remembering more,” Gabe said, unable to keep the uncertainty from his voice.

“If that was gonna happen, the need to touch wouldn’t be there in the first place. Kinda like how we have subconscious aversions caused by the things we don’t remember, I think this is a subconscious desire. The touching thing, not the liking each other. Pretty sure that was around long before any of this started,” Sam smiled.

“It was for me.”

“Me too.”

They lay in silence a few more minutes, and Gabe was just at the point of dozing off when another thought struck. “Sam, you do _want_ to eventually… you know, right? Because it’s ok if you don’t. We’ve both been through a lot, and if you don’t want to be together physically, if you aren’t comfortable with it, I’d be ok with that, as long as we can be together in some way.”

“Gabriel Shurley, I’ve wanted you since I was able to understand what wanting meant, and probably even before that. I’m not ready to try right now, but hell yeah, I wanna get physical with you. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be ok with just being friends; like you said, long as we’re together in some way… But when you’re ready… yeah.”

“Just wanted to make sure. It’s like I kinda assumed a relationship that we haven’t really talked about and I don’t want you to feel pressured. But with everything we’ve been finding out, it just kinda felt like we were already there,” Gabe mumbled, stifling a yawn.

“Well, considering we’ve spent half the past couple days kissing, and apparently the past couple years doing a hell of a lot more, it feels the same way to me. We can go over the details of our relationship when you’re not so tired though. For now, let’s just say we’re inseparable and leave it at that?” Sam grinned.

“Inseparable. Yeah, I think I can live with that,” Gabe smiled, the easement of his fears finally letting his tired brain shut down.

 

Next chapter: Missing Solutions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Not proofed yet, will read it over in a few mins.~~ only one mistake, and one spot where Sam's dialogue was a bit out of character. Both fixed now.
> 
> comments, questions, corrections, suggestions, always encouraged and appreciated.


	10. Missing Solutions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brainstorming with a side of unexpected visitor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** T
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** vague references to torture/rape
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** none prominent
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Charlie Bradbury, Meg, Kevin Tran, Castiel Novak, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Gabriel Shurley
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** strategizing

“He’s a sec! Why is he a sec? Why is a sec here?!” the unfamiliar young man yelled, distressed voice rising with each exclamation. He tried to turn and run back out the door, but Charlie and Meg each caught the skinny teen by an arm and hauled him back into the room. The bangs of his black, messy hair obscured his eyebrows and overshadowed dark eyes wide with fear.

“He’s here because it’s his place. But he’s not on duty, so right now, he’s not a sec. No need to worry, just calm down, Kevin,” Meg drawled, and the boy immediately relaxed, a slight frown the only indication of remaining worry.

“Not a sec?” Kevin whimpered.

“Not right now. No worries,” Meg assured.

“Techni-“

“Uncle Zar, Kevin’s had a bit of a… mishap. It’s probably better if we keep him calm and not mention work, ‘kay?” Charlie interrupted. True, a sec was always a sec whether actively working or not, but this wasn’t the time for him to be pointing that out.

“Right. Well, then, Kevin, right? I’m Balthazar; you can call me Zar if you like. Welcome to my home,” Balthazar replied. “And welcome to you as well, Meg. Wasn’t expecting to see you here tonight.”

“Really? You told her to bring her source, didn’t you?” Meg replied, steering Kevin into a chair at the table, then ordering up some hot jasmine-green tea for him without waiting for an invite from her host.

“ _You’re_ her source? I thought you said it was a man?” Balthazar directed the second question to Charlie.

“No, you assumed it was a man. I just didn’t correct you,” Charlie clarified.

Balthazar blinked. “Well, colour me chastised. I shouldn’t be making assumptions. That explains your presence, Meg, but what about the boy?”

“He and I are both in trouble now,” Meg replied, synthing some coffee for herself and taking another seat at the table. Charlie and Balthazar followed suit. “And I have some new information for you. Lucifer had me attend one of his ‘sessions’ with Kevin this morning. Since losing Sam, his sadism has gotten even worse than Alastair’s.” Meg shuddered. “While he was carving up the poor boy, he let something slip. ‘With my own genius improving it, Mother’s drug has become the best invention ever. You adore me, don’t you? You can’t live without me now’. After that, Kevin was desperate to do everything Luc wanted, to please him any way he could, trying to earn his approval. Several hours later Lucifer left, and I used the drug with my own DNA in it to try to counteract, or at least soften the order. Didn’t want the poor kid to drop dead just because Luc wasn’t there. I’m not sure if he meant that command to be so absolute, but it was. Kevin’s breathing went weird and I think he was heading for a heart attack, having taken the ‘you can’t live without me now’ too literally. I think he’s ok for now, but while I was telling Kevin he had to remember everything that happened when he was drugged and tell everyone about it -his mother is very protective; she would make sure this problem got the attention it deserves-, Lucifer came back. I thought he’d turned the camera off; he doesn’t usually record his private sessions. But apparently he either didn’t, or turned it on right after he left, because he knew what I’d been telling Kevin. Injecting the boy with his own croat, he told him to be terrified of secs and adults in general. I managed to use my croat on Luc, but he’s either immune or developed a preventative. Either way, it had no effect and it was all I could do to grab Kevin and get away. Had to inject him again so Lucifer couldn’t order him to stop or catch me. Between the conflicting orders and overdose of two different croats, the poor boy’s not quite right in the head at the moment.”

“Well, damn, that puts us in a bit of a bind. Naomi’s the one who cleared the drug from Sam and Gabriel’s systems. She never gave any hint of knowing what the drug was or where it came from. At least that explains why, over the past ten years, she’s never found anything out about the drug used on Cassie, though she insisted she’d been working on it in her spare time. Damn. Good thing I decided not to invite her tonight,” Zar mused.

“Why would you invite her? She’s a Shurley,” Meg asked as the computer announced the arrival of Castiel Novak.

Balthazar replied as he went to the door and let his brothers and their friends in. “So is Gabriel. Technically, Cassie and I are too. Adopted biological sons of Chuck. Not every Shurley is in league with Lucifer, and Naomi has been helping remove the drug -‘croat’ you call it, right?- and repair its effects. I had thought of inviting her and Rowena but decided it best to keep to those directly affected. Easier to open up among peers and all that.”

“Why are we talking about Naomi?” Cas asked, gesturing Gabe to take one of the two remaining dining chairs. Sam took the other seat, squeezing Gabe’s hand under the table. Dean and Cas hovered behind their brothers, while Balthazar began handing coffees around.

Meg eyed the young man behind Sam suspiciously for a second before remembering where she’d seen him. That was right, Dean; Sam’s protective older brother. He’d been yelling at Lucifer on Challenge day. Not to mention had a brush-up with Alastair. And he was still alive. Huh. She knew the other three newcomers and how they were involved with tonight’s topic, too. Having decided they were all ok, or at least against Lucifer, she answered Cas’s question. “I overheard Lucifer saying Naomi was the one who developed the drug; he just made it more effective.”

“She’s working with that asshole. Why is she here?” Dean demanded of Balthazar, pointing angrily at Meg, though he allowed her to finish talking before going off.

“ _She_ has a name, and I’m here because I’m helping,” Meg replied, arms crossed over her chest.

“I’ve seen you ‘helping’ Lu… that asshole, and we don’t need _that_ kind of help,” Dean spat.

“You think I wanted any of that? I didn’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”

“So your brother had a choice?”

“That’s different, he was being blackmailed and drugged!”

“Yeah, and he’s not the only one, genius. You don’t think they used the same tactics on everyone?” Meg drawled, making an obvious effort to curb her anger.

“Dean, give it a rest. Meg’s ok,” Sam interrupted.

“But she… after you… how can you even be in the same room?” countered Dean.

“Pretty sure they were drugging her too,” Sam shrugged.

“Sometimes, yes, but not all the time,” Meg admitted.

“I don’t get a bad feeling from Meg like I do with Luci and Alastair,” commented Gabriel.

“Hey, Meg only worked with them ‘cause she didn’t have a choice. And she’s been trying to make things easier on the kids like Kevin here. She’s a good person,” Charlie added defensively, standing behind Meg’s chair.

“Right then, I think this is getting a bit out of hand. Everyone calm down a moment, please,” Balthazar interrupted, sitting on the edge of the table near Kevin. “I asked you all here to help, not to bicker. Now, I’ll start with introductions, so we all know who everyone else is and why they’re here.” Working his way around the table, Balthazar named everyone, their relation to Luc’s operation, and why they’d come to Zar for help. By the end of the introductions, everyone seemed a bit more at ease. “The point of this gathering is to figure out what to do about all this. Apparently, Michael has knowledge of the operation, though is not aware of the drug’s use in it. I’ve approached him about making drugs that remove free will illegal, but he was soundly against the idea, so I don’t see any way to get help from him. Naomi’s apparently the one who invented the drug, so perhaps going to her would be unadvisable. Anyone have any other ideas on how to stop Lucifer when he isn’t technically breaking any laws?”

“Could Rowena help?” Sam asked. After all, she’d been very helpful to him and Gabriel.

“Rowena MacLeod? Crowley’s mom? Why would she work against an operation her son is helping run?” Charlie countered.

“Son?”

“Yeah, you’ve seen him when you weren’t drugged, Sammy. Shortish guy, wears a tech-age, antique of a suit?” Meg offered.

“That’s Rowena’s son? They look nothing alike. They don’t even have the same accent,” Sam protested.

“Not sure the backstory on that, but yeah, according to an old NN article, they’re mom and son,” Charlie assured.

“Maybe she doesn’t know her son’s involved?”

“Sam… the memory I recovered this morning… I don’t remember how I got to the booth. I thought Alastair had brought me, but he was in the booth when I entered. Could it have been Crowley, and Rowena had me not remember that part?” Gabriel asked.

“That wouldn’t be very professiona-“ Balthazar was interrupted by the computer announcing the arrival of Fergus MacLeod. “Speak of the devil,” he shrugged, going to answer the door.

“Wait!” Meg cried in a strangled whisper, jumping up, grabbing Kevin, and going into the bioc with him, lock beeping after the door swished shut.

That had the two in the most danger out of sight, but Balthazar didn’t want Luc’s ally to see the others assembled there either. Stepping outside, he let the door slide shut behind him, his body blocking the brief view of the interior. “Can I help you?” he asked briskly.

“Yes. I’d like to report a… not quite illegal, let’s just say shady, operation going on in the dome. Mother suggested I go to you with this. You’re welcome.”

“Suggested you report it, or suggested me to report to?”

“What does that matter? The fact is, I’m reporting it and willing to help you take down Lucifer, with considerable risk to yours truly, so just invite me in and be bloody grateful.”

“No, I think we can just talk out here,” Balthazar replied.

“I’m not talking about this in the street. Invite me in or we’re done here.”

“And I’m supposed to trust you because?”

Crowley turned on his heel and started walking away, leaving Balthazar only two choices; let him go, or let him in.

“Wait,” Zar sighed. The short man turned back to him, an eyebrow raised expectantly. “If you’re truly here to help, and swear not to tell Luc anything you see or hear inside, you may come in.”

“As I prefer my head where it is, that is to say, attached to my body, rest assured Lucifer won’t hear anything about this from me,” Crowley affirmed, brushing past the sec. “Well, well, what have we here? The little mouse from Challenge day. Oh, and Bugs and Moose too. And the squirrely guy Alastair’s been trying to get information on, Big Brother Moose. Nah, that doesn’t fit at all. Let’s just go with Squirrel. Don’t think I know the one behind Bugs?”

“Castiel,” Cas replied with a nod.

“Ah, angel name. So, another of Chuck’s bastards?”

“My little brother,” Balthazar replied, voice gruff with warning. “Now that the introductions are done, could you get to the point of this visit?”

“Relax, no need to get your feathers ruffled. I’m here because mother informed me you wished to put an end to Lucifer’s operation. As I am involved in said operation -which has not broken any laws, by the way-, I thought it best to offer my assistance to you rather than go down with him. Besides, I don’t care for the direction he’s taken the business.”

“What do you mean?” Zar asked.

“Aside from the torture part, which I never approved of, he’s been intentionally making challengers lose their Challenges. The idea being that people working longer hours meant more things that could be accomplished in the dome. Unfortunately, that means someone has to find work to fill said hours, and I’m one of the people with that task. It’s getting to be a right pain in the ass to find enough work for everyone, and it’s worsening by the year.”

“I thought that was the part Michael liked about the plan?” Charlie commented.

“Oh, sure, _he_ likes it. Thinks the extra hours should be going toward increases in sec presence and regulation, building weapons, that kind of thing. Michael’s always disapproved of daddy’s lackadaisical attitude toward rule and order. But many of us thrive under the lack of big brother watching our every move. And not always in nefarious ways,” Crowley groused.

“But if he wants more regulation, why did he refuse making a law against croat-like drugs? He doesn’t know Luc’s using them, so why not outlaw them?” Balthazar mused.

“Unless he’s using them himself?” Dean chimed in, and all eyes turned to him. “Err, I just mean… if his mom’s the one who invented the original version of croat, why did she, and what has she been using it for?” he clarified, blushing.

“That’s a very good question,” Cas said, brows furrowed in thought. “If Michael’s giving free reign to his desire for order, perhaps he’s using the drug to interrogate people without their knowledge?” 

Balthazar sat back down on the edge of the table. Crowley took Kevin’s vacated seat, Charlie collapsing into the one Meg had used. Dean and Cas looked at each other, then perched on the table beside their brothers. No one remained standing under the weight of that suggestion.

“We need to take this to Father. I know he hasn’t been interested in running things for a long time, but we can’t go to Michael or Naomi; it has to be him,” Cas concluded, breaking the worried silence.

“Yeah, sure, bro. Just one problem. How do you plan on finding him? Don’t remember the last time I saw him at home,” Gabriel sighed.

Balthazar shrugged. “Cassie’s right though; Chuck needs to do something about this, and about Michael too, if he’s getting that manipulative in the shadows. Char, have you heard anything on his whereabouts? Any gossip on the News Network?”

“You know that type of ‘news’ isn’t permitted. Facts, not hearsay. But I can ask on the boards if anyone’s seen him recently.”

“And I can check with mother. She and Chuck used to have a… thing,” Crowley added with an overdramatic shudder.

“Hey, mothers are people too. She’s got every right to have a ‘thing’,” Charlie chastised.

“I’m not denying that. Just saying she also has every right to lock the damn door.”

“Ok, parents’ proclivities are not the point here. Char, hold off on asking around for now. Might be better if no one knows we’re looking for Chuck. And I think I have a way to find him. I trust you’ve already thought of a way to keep your source safe?”

“Of course. Safe _and_ comfortable,” Charlie grinned with a wink.

Balthazar rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to know. Sam and Dean, your place still secure?”

“Seems to be. No sign of anyone watching the place, at least,” Dean replied.

“Actually, it’s not,” Crowley interrupted. “I did mention Alastair told me to dig up info on Squirrel, right? Afraid I gave him your address last night. He’s probably been watching the place or having it watched ever since.”

“I’m sure Bobby and Karen could find room for us for a few-“ Sam started before being cut off by his brother’s exclamation.

“Dad!”

“Dad’ll be fine. They aren’t after him, Dean, they’re after you,” Sam pointed out.

“Yeah, but Alastair uses threats to friends and family to get his way all the time. If they take him…” Dean was already heading toward the door, but Sam had a firm grip around his wrist.

“If they try to drag him out of his holo-room he’ll kick their ass. You know how Dad is.”

“Not if they drug him,” Dean pointed out, yanking his wrist free and running out the door.

Cas was after him in a flash, followed closely by Sam and Gabe. Balthazar started to follow, but Cas called back “I’ve got this. You and Crowley take Kevin to Rowena and see if she can sort him out.”

Balthazar was tempted to follow anyway, but gave in with a sigh. “That was going to be my next suggestion. Kevin, you can come out now,” Zar called toward the bioc. “Charlie, set the lock when you l-“ he was interrupted by Kevin freaking out at the sight of Crowley. Pouting, meg came out of the bioc to calm him, glaring a warning at Crowley.

“Ah, so there’s where you’ve been hiding. Lucifer and Alastair are in a right tizzy over your departure,” the short man smirked.

“Too bad for them, I’m not coming back. Doubt they’d be too happy to hear about _your_ betrayal either,” Meg drawled, both a threat and a promise.

“Relax, Meg, I’m not your enemy. Not right now, at least.”

“Ok, considering Kevin needs Meg, maybe we should all head to Rowena’s? Once he’s calmed down Meg and I can leave. Or if she can’t help, we’ll take him with us until we find a way to get him fixed up,” Charlie suggested.

“Looks as though that’s the only option. Alright, everyone stick together, watch for anyone following us, and don’t let anyone close enough to stick a needle in you. That includes you, Crowley. Take the lead where I can keep an eye on you.”

Crowley sent a message to Rowena, informing her of the incoming guests, then they all headed out.

 

Next Chapter: Missing Fathers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Too slow? It’s moving too slow, isn’t it? Is it? Story still interesting? Could reeeeally use some feedback on this.
> 
> As always, questions, comments, suggestions, corrections welcome and encouraged :D


	11. Missing Fathers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean races to save his dad. Cas races to save Dean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** T
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** cliffhanger (sorry)
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Dean Winchester/Castiel Shurley (ish)
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Castiel Novak, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Gabriel Shurley, Charlie Bradbury, Meg
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** abduction

"Dean, slow down," Cas called, though Dean ignored him, only pausing when he had to wait for a chair. "Don't rush int-" He'd almost caught up when a chair arrived, and zoomed off with Dean inside. Sam and Gabriel arrived, panting, while Cas was waiting for the next chair. Jumping in, he sped away the second one had stopped in front of him. When the chair came to a halt in the Winchesters' western sector, Cas saw Dean turning a corner and ran after. "Dean, wait!" he called breathlessly, forcing a burst of speed from his lean muscles. The other man was fast, but Cas was faster. He should have been able to catch up. But fear must have spurred Dean to speed normally beyond him, because even with his fastest sprint the distance between them was growing. Praying Alastair or his underlings weren't at the house, Cas focused on his breathing, pushing his body to move faster.

When he got to the apartment his breath rushed out in relief. Dean was calling for his father, pounding on the locked holo-room door. Every other door in the apartment was open, so Dean had probably already checked the other rooms, but Cas checked them himself, just to be sure. All clear.

"Dad, this is an emergency, you need to open the door, **now**!" Dean was saying as Cas finished his search. 

Swishing open, the door revealed, not John Winchester but Alastair, and Cas immediately darted in front of Dean, body crouched and ready to defend. However, the image before them was holographic, not the real man. "Poor Dean. Couldn't keep your mum safe, couldn't keep your brother safe, and now you couldn't keep your dad safe either. Can't protect anyone, no matter how much you want to, can you? But I'm not an unreasonable man. Your dad's already broken, but I could break him further; I could make things _so much worse_ for him. But it wouldn't be as much fun as toying with you. Bringing you to your full potential; teaching you to use that anger you keep bottled up. Give yourself to me and I'll let your father go. Meet me at W7P7 at 16:00. Fail to show up, and you won't like the consequences," the image promised, holo-room somehow managing to imitate his voice so perfectly that both Dean and Cas were shivering and covered in goosepimples.

"Dean, you can't-" Cas started.

"I _have_ to! He's my father!" Dean interrupted.

"-go alone," Cas finished. "it's 14:15 right now, that gives us an hour and a half to come up with a plan and have time to get there."

Sam and Gabriel arrived, holding hands and out of breath from running. "What's going on?" Sam panted.

"We're too late," growled Dean, scowling at the holo-Alastair that hadn't disappeared, though he'd finished speaking.

"What's- Alastair," Sam hissed, catching on. "He's got Dad?"

"Yeah, and he wants me in exchange," Dean confirmed.

"You can't. You don't know what he wants you for; he's brutal. There's no way-"

"Sammy, I do know what he wants me for, and it doesn't matter. I can't let him hurt Dad."

"Why not? It's not like Dad even cares what happens to himself, and if the positions were reversed, he wouldn't do shit to try and save you. How can you care about that asshole? Do you not even realize how shitty he's been to you, to us, our whole lives? Yeah, Mom died and that sucks, and I'm sorry it hurt him so much, but she wasn't his only family! He had two sons who needed him but instead he just buried himself in memories of her! Why? Why is a man like that even worth saving? How can you even consider-"

"Sam!" Dean shouted, cutting his younger brother off. "You never really knew Mom, and you didn't see them together. He worshiped her. He loved us, because we were born from their love. And when he lost her, we became reminders of his missing half. If you could remember her the way I do, you'd understand. What would you do if the person you loved more than anything in the world, more than even yourself, died?"

"I sure as hell wouldn't abandon our kids!" Sam spat back, angry retort followed by an uncomfortable silence. Their father had been the only undercurrent of contention between the brothers, but they'd never actually talked about it. Sam's silent fuming was broken by a soft squeeze on his hand. Gabe was looking at him with a curious expression that was half hope, half fear.

"You want kids?" Gabe asked quietly. Part of him was obviously worried that Sam's desire for a family meant whatever was blossoming between them would one day be pushed aside.

"Well, yeah. If you do," Sam replied, anger dissolving into a crooked smile. "There are ways. But I was answering a hypothetical question," he added, hard gaze returning to Dean.

"I get it, Sammy, I do understand. You just gotta realize I knew him before Mom died. They were both awesome parents. So I also get why, when Mom died, Dad just couldn't, and I don't blame him for that. So yeah, I'm gonna go save him. And no, Cas, I'm not gonna be stupid about it. But I don't have any ideas, so if you've got a plan, now would be a good time." Dean looked at Cas expectantly, but wasn't ready for the next thing that came out of his mouth.

"... You called me Cas."

"Isn't that what you like to be called? You've told me enough times."

"Yes, of course, but... I think I've gotten so used to you using my full name, it just kind of caught me off guard."

"Ok then, Castiel, what's the plan?" Dean asked, rolling his eyes though he secretly found the complaint kind of cute.

"Good question. We need to find out where he's keeping your father and rescue him," Cas suggested.

Dean shook his head. "Even if we knew where he operates, we used a distract and grab to get Gabriel; I'm sure he'll be prepared for that. Maybe I can trade myself for Dad, then you guys can follow back to his secret lair or whatever?"

"That has too many things that could go wrong," Cas objected. "What if we lose sight of you? What if he suspects he's being tailed and takes you somewhere else, or hops a TC and prepares an ambush in case we happen to be able to read his lips and follow? Using you as bait is _not_ an option."

"What are you talking about, Castiel, of course it's an option. It's the only one we have."

"Dean, there's always another choice. What about Meg? She has the drug, right? She could drug him, make him bring your father to us and stop going after you or your family and friends," Cas offered.

"I don't trust her," Dean protested.

"I trust her more than I trust Alastair, and right now it's the best option we've come up with," Cas shrugged, going to the computer to send a message to Balthazar, since he didn't know Meg's last name. A few minutes later, Meg replied (apparently she didn't have a last name?), saying the drug hadn't worked on Lucifer, so there was a good chance it wouldn't be effective on Alastair either, though if they wanted her to bring some croat anyway, she could. Balthazar also responded, saying under no circumstances was Dean to turn himself over to Alastair.

"Like fucking hell. If the drug won't work, what choice do we have? I'll have to turn myself over to him. Leaving Dad in Alastair's clutches is _not_ and option either," Dean objected, his voice right next to Cas's ear where he was reading Balthazar's message over the slightly shorter man's shoulder.

Surprised at Dean's proximity, Cas jumped, accidentally knocking into his chin. "Sorry, you startled me," he apologized, wondering how he'd gotten so close without Cas realizing. He was usually very conscious of where everyone was in a room. A habit born of fear after his stint as a test subject. Though ten years had passed, his hyper-awareness had gotten stronger, not faded. Which wasn't a bad thing, in his line of work. So, for Dean to have gotten so close... "And we _will_ rescue your father, Dean, just not at the cost of losing you."

"Then you'd better come up with another plan quick, because time's running out."

The elder Winchester brother hadn't moved away, even after the accidental shoulder to the chin, and Cas could feel body heat pulsing against his back. It was disconcertingly distracting and he stepped away, turning to face Dean. Now that his thoughts were clearer, he could focus on the problem at hand. But before he had time to think, the computer announced another message and Cas opened it, reading quickly. "Charlie says she has an idea," he informed the others. "Kevin is in hypnosis with Rowena, so she and Meg will be here in a few minutes."

Dean barely seemed able to stay inside, let alone sit still for the 4-5 minutes it took for the computer to announce Charlie Bradbury's arrival. "We're running out of time; your idea better be a good one," Dean said without preamble as they pushed past him into the Winchester's home.

"It is. Although... best not to tell Zar about it. Or like, anyone. I mean, I try not to do more than bend the law, but in this case... if there was a way to track where you're taken without having to keep eyes on you, that'd be good, right? Even if it wasn't quite legal?" Charlie asked.

"I don't thin-" Cas started, but Dean cut him off.

"Sounds fine to me. No one will know, right? Except us?"

"You'd swallow the tracker; no way for anyone to tell it's there unless they know what to look for and how to look for it. Considering almost no one knows or remembers how to use wireless technology, I'd say Alastair and Lucifer shouldn't be able to figure it out. If you want to try it."

"Damn straight I wanna try-"

"Dean, Alastair and Luc can block out traces. Did you forget?"

"But this isn't... It's not the same. Is it?" Dean questioned the short redhead, realizing he hadn't really asked how it worked.

"Nope, traces don't use wireless technology. They work by each trace having a different unique makeup, and the dome's sensors check for that to locate the person being traced. But this emits a wave frequency that can be picked up remotely. There shouldn't be anything stopping it from working, but the one drawback is, if the dome does a wave scan, it'd be detected, and wireless tech is illegal."

"If he swallows it, it'll be in his system for days, at least. Isn't there a daily scan?" Cas pointed out.

"... Crap. That's true. We could plant it somewhere easier to remove? maybe under his tongue or inside... somewhere?"

"You don't think Alastair's going to check over every inch of him, including... inside?" Cas countered. The thought of what Alastair would do once he had Dean alone sent goosebumps over his skin. Though he'd never managed to remember clearly the things that had been done to him or the men who had done them, Cas strongly suspected the two guys who'd been there at first were Alastair and Lucifer. And that Alastair was the more sadistic of the two.

"It's small," Charlie suggested, trying to find a way to make this work, "maybe if we injected it under the skin-"

"Uh-uh. I don't do needles," Dean declared in a tone that left no room for negotiation.

After several more minutes of discussion, they all agreed on Dean hiding the device under his tongue, though Cas was still reluctant to allow it. Dean was Sam's brother and even if he had been a stranger, as a member of security, it went against Cas's nature to allow a civilian to walk willingly into danger. It had nothing to do with the way Dean fit so naturally into his personal space that he could be inches away without setting off alarms in Cas that never allowed anyone near without detection. Though that was something he'd definitely puzzle over. Later though. After they got Dean and his dad both back from Alastair.

"For the record, I still don't think this is a good idea," Cas stated as he and Dean headed out. Charlie, Meg, Sam, and Gabriel were already on their way to Rowena's. Cas would use Charlie's device to track Dean, once he'd recovered John Winchester and sent him over to his friend Bobby's for safe-keeping. Which left Dean with the dangerous role of handing himself over to Alastair.

 

*****

 

“Where’s my dad?” Dean demanded as he stepped in front of the chair in which Alastair was enthroned.

“So you’ve stepped into my parlor?” Alastair’s soft, whispery hiss commented, sending chills down Dean’s spine. He vaguely got the reference, something about a spider inviting a fly to dinner.

“Not until my dad’s safe,” insisted Dean.

“Patience, young student. He’s fine. Once we get where we’re going, I’ll send a message to have him taken home.”

“And I’m just supposed to take your word for it?” Dean asked, shaking his head. “No way. You and Luc are the same, saying you’ll leave someone alone if a person goes along with what you want, then not fucking keeping your word.”

“If you trust me so little, why come here at all? I could release your father, then retake him once you’re in my power.”

Dean opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. That was a good point. No one was safe while Alastair, Lucifer, and croat were in the dome. Castiel had been right; this wasn’t a good plan. But, the point was that Dean could be tracked, and if Alastair didn’t release Dad, he’d probably be in the same place, so they could both be rescued together. “I don’t have any choice, do I? Besides, your interest is in me, not him. Let’s go. The sooner we get to wherever it is, the sooner you can let my dad go.”

“Now you’re starting to see. Power is an addiction. Once you’ve tasted it, you’ll never want anything else,” Alastair breezed, cold eyes pinning Dean with a promise that had the young man shivering. The realization that his reaction was only partly due to fear made Dean shudder further, wondering how he could feel a slight bit of anticipation. “Come.” Alastair walked away, no hesitation at turning his back on Dean, and not questioning whether the young man would follow. Which he did.

 

*****

 

Cas watched from a window of the housing building across the street as Dean followed Alastair toward the nearest TCs. For the tenth time since he’d taken up position, he checked the device Charlie had given him. A strong red dot blinked, reached the station, then disappeared and a moment of panic shot through the sec before he remembered Charlie’s instructions and switched the map to a wider view, then wider again, and again. The map had panned out to show the entirety of the dome before the red dot reappeared, in S7. Letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, Cas stood and started down the hallway back toward the elevator. But he only made it a few steps before hearing the faint hiss of a door opening on his left. Turning swiftly, he just managed to avoid the needle that had been aiming for his side. Kicking the syringe out of the hand holding it, the plastic clattered across the floor as he grabbed the owner of said hand, jerking them out of the doorway and against himself before pressing his forearm over the person’s neck in a sleeper hold. Laying the unconscious form on the hallway floor, he darted to the syringe, picking it up while glancing around for other assailants. Two doors opened behind and he whipped around to face the danger, but no sooner had he turned than he felt a presence behind him, someone having come out of the open doorway. His booted foot lashed backward in a spinning kick, but the woman kept hold of her croat. Before she could use it, Cas jabbed the needle he’d picked up into her, depressing the plunger and commanding her to stop. She did, and Cas whipped back around to asses the danger from the recently opened doorways, only to feel the poke of a needle in his waist. When he turned, the woman he’d injected was holding up her empty syringe, smirking.

“Stop,” she commanded, and Cas felt himself comply. “The drug only works for the person whose DNA is added. Now, you’re gonna come quietly. Alastair wants a word with you.”

Cas shuddered as the woman took the tracker from his unresisting fingers. Unable to resist, he followed. At least Dean wouldn’t be facing Alastair alone.

 

*****

 

Next chapter: Missing Fathers II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I try not to leave off on cliffhangers, but unfortunately, that’s where this one decided to end. Especially unfortunate, as there will probably not be an update next week because youmacon. Sorry, but I’ll try to make the next one, in two weeks, extra good to make up for it!
> 
> As always, questions, comments, suggestions, corrections welcome and encouraged :D


	12. Missing Fathers II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cas and Dean are in Alastair’s clutches. Will help come before the sadist can inflict lasting damage?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** M
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** violence/torture
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Dean Winchester/Castiel Novak
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Castiel Novak, Dean Winchester, Alastair, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Sam Winchester, Gabriel Shurley, Charlie Bradbury, Meg
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** abduction, torture, general nastiness ‘cause Alastair  >.<

Dean didn’t know which was worse, the pain or the way Alastair seemed to enjoy inflicting it, judging by the tent in the sadistic man’s pants that Dean was trying not to think about. “I… thought you…. Aaah… were gonna… sssss… teach me… to… nnnnn…” Dean panted, struggling to force the words out through the pain.

“Patience, Dean. You have to know pain before you can mete it out effectively,” Alastair rasped, saving Dean from having to finish the sentence.

“You… don’t,” Dean pointed out.

“Hmm… true. But I’ve had years of practice dealing it to know what effect it will have. You have had pain in your life, but not nearly enough to be a connoisseur. It’s important for you to know the limits of human endurance,” a pause as Dean’s voice rose in a cry of excruciating pain, “and how to push those limits.”

“I’m not... like you. I’ll never be like you. I don’t get off on causing... pain and,” sharp intake of breath, “I won’t be what you want.” Dean was beginning to be able to distance himself from the agony; to not give the tall, thin man what he wanted. It was something he’d learned to do on the few bad days with Dad, but the pain now was far more intense, making it harder to keep separate.

“Oh, you say that now, Dean, but it won’t be long before you’re begging to be the one inflicting pain rather than receiving it,” Alastair assured, corner of his mouth crooked up in a knowing smirk. Dean heard the clink of metal as the torturer set down the scalpel he’d been using, long fingers twitching over his other instruments before selecting one and holding it up before Dean’s eyes. In contrast to the compact, sharp, clean metal of the scalpel, this was a large old knife with a wooden handle and dull, rusty blade. “Now this… this will hurt so much more, in such a different way. Crude, true, but you’re not that kind of canvass: no need for pretty pictures on your flesh. A dull blade tears, rends, destroys flesh as easily as it rips through the constraints you tried to put on your voice.” 

As the blade pressed, practically sawed, across Dean’s chest, Alastair’s words proved true. A scream was torn from his throat, tears leaking from his eyes. “F… fuck you,” Dean cried, pissed that he’d been pulled back into the pain of his body. The worst part was, none of the damage was real. It _looked_ real, _felt_ real, but the tools and the injuries they created were only holographic. That didn’t make a difference to Dean’s brain though, which was constrained by croat and the sadist’s order to feel everything as if it was real. How his brain could possibly know what ‘real’ felt like in regards to this kind of severe pain, who knew? Maybe he was feeling things more intensely than they would really be. Or maybe less. The point was, he couldn’t avoid the pain, even though it didn’t exist.

“Wanting to go there already?” Alastair sneered, and Dean, remembering the pants tent he’d been ignoring, clacked his jaw firmly shut. Chuckling, the tall man continued his work. “It would be good. With a bit of time, and a bit of work, I could train your body not to be able to come without pain. I could make it so that no one else would be able to please you. That would certainly be amusing. But you don’t interest me in that way. Oh, you’ll be getting me off when you’re ready; have no doubt. Not by fucking though. No, the thing that will do it for me will be watching you carve up your first victim; seeing the hunger for pain on your face. Especially considering who your first victim will be,” Alastair added as he drew the blade across Dean’s stomach, eliciting another scream as holographic blood pulsed through the jagged gash.

“What do you mean?” Dean exclaimed around the pain. “You _said_ you’d let Dad go!”

“Oh, I did, Dean, I did. No, this is someone much better than your dad.”

“If you lay one hand on Sammy, Lucifer will take you apart before I even have a cha-“

“Not Sam either. Though that’s a thought…” Alastair mused as he exchanged the blade for a pair of pliers. “Can’t wait to watch you go to work,” he rasped as he clamped the pliers onto a fingernail and wiggled, at first not even enough to cause pain, then increasing the pressure slowly, pulling to the point of aching then pausing, taking in the look of fear and denial on dean’s face. He teased several times, switching fingers, and enjoying the terrified whimpers Dean was trying unsuccessfully to withhold. Suddenly and without warning, he yanked hard, the nail on the ring finger of the left hand tearing off. Blood pooled on the surface of the remaining, sensitive skin and Dean’s scream echoed around the holo-room.

“Son of a Bitch!” Dean gasped hoarsely, breath hitched in lingering pain, a whimpering undertone to the words.

“Ah, Dean, so much for you to learn. Your cries are exquisite. A few more hours and I think you’ll be ready,” Alastair preened, his whispery, raspy voice adding goosebumps to the throbs of pain wracking Dean’s body.

 

*****

 

“Something’s gone wrong,” Balthazar worried. He was pacing around Rowena’s office, glaring at the computer like it was purposefully refusing to send him an answer from Cassie.

“It’s only been a few hours…” Charlie consoled uncertainly. Personally, she felt Zar was right to be concerned. She’d only recently met Castiel, but he struck her as a responsible sort. Not the type to leave his brother waiting for news if everything was going according to plan.

“Maybe you should try going to Alastair’s house?” Meg suggested. “Charlie and I can wait here for Kevin.”

“No one should be going anywhere alone. That includes me,” Balthazar complained.

“What about Anna?” Charlie offered. “She’s your partner, after all.”

“No offense to your sister, Char, but Anna wouldn’t know danger if it tackled her in full body armor.”

“None taken; you’re right. Is there another sec you trust?”

“No. There’s no way to tell who could be either involved in or a customer of Luc’s business.”

“I could-“ Charlie started.

“Absolutely not!” Balthazar interrupted, not giving her a chance to finish. “You know better than to even suggest it.”

“But I could keep hidden, just watch your back, run for help if you get into trouble,” Charlie explained.

“There must be another way.”

“There is,” Sam said as he and Gabe came back from the bioc. “Gabe and I will go with you.”

“Again, no. You are children. I’m not taking you into harm’s way,” Balthazar affirmed, exasperated.

“We’ve both passed our challenge; we’re not kids anymore. And Sam’s going after his brother either way, which means I’m going too. So you’re better off taking us with you than having us follow on our own,” Gabe pointed out.

Balthazar thunked his forehead against the wall he’d been pacing near. “It. Is. Dangerous. Do you not get that?”

“Of course we get it. Which is why we’re going. Dean’s looked after me most of his life; it’s time I return the favor,” Sam responded, going to the computer and typing in a message.

“Who are you writing?” Zar asked.

“Bobby. Asked if Cas had dropped Dad off or not. That will give us an idea of when things went wrong. If they have. Maybe Cas just got tied up at Bobby’s helping handle Dad and left late to go after Dean, so he didn’t have time to send a message.”

Only a few seconds passed before the computer chimed in response, an audio call rather than typed message.

“What the hell’s your damned fool dad gotten himself into this time?” Bobby’s gruff voice asked, not bothering with a greeting.

“Actually, it’s Dean,” Sam replied, realizing they’d never actually filled Bobby in on the plan, just assumed he’d go along with it. Correcting that, he brought the family friend up to speed. He knew Bobby wasn’t involved in any way, shape, or form with Lucifer’s business. Not just because it’d be out of character for him, but because Bobby was head over heels for his wife, Karen. And though they didn’t have any children of their own, Bobby loved kids and would never, ever do anything detrimental to or with them.

“Dammit, why’s that boy gotta go doin’ fool, impulsive shit without asking for help?” Bobby groused.

“He did have help. It's just that the help hasn’t checked in so we’re worried they may both be in danger. Alastair should have released Dad by now though, can you and Karen kind of look for him? But stick together and don’t let anyone close enough to jab you with a needle. Especially if you check our place; Alastair may still be having it watched,” Sam asked, wondering if it was really ok to be dragging their friend into the danger surrounding them.

“Will do. And Sam, don’t you bother worrying about us, or John. We’re pre-domers; we know how to be careful. Karen’ll shoot you a message once we’ve found him and we’ll keep him safe. You just focus on gettin’ your brother back and keepin’ your own ass outta trouble.” Bobby ended the call and Sam turned to Balthazar.

“That’s Dad taken care of. And we know Cas never made it to Bobby’s. Should we go directly to Alastair’s or stop by the meeting place and check for clues?”

“Direct to the source, I’d think. But it’s not like he’ll let us in. Might not even answer the door; we’d have no way to say for sure if he’s even there or not,” Balthazar sighed.

“Umm…” Charlie hemmed, wincing as Zar turned a raised eyebrow on her. “It’s not _technically_ illegal, I think. Depends on your definitions. But I do have something that’d help you see if anyone is in Alastair’s apartment.”

“Hopefully something that works better than whatever idea you had to keep Dean and Cassie safe that you refused to tell me about? Because that doesn’t seem to have worked.”

“Hey, the tech worked. If there was a snafu, it must have come from something else. Anyway, what I was thinking of now is something different. Don’t know why no one’s used it in the dome before, other than, like I said, legality depends on definition…”

“Out with it, Char,” Balthazar grumbled. He loved his not-quite-niece, but his little brother was the most important person in his life, and damned if he was going to sit around here waiting for her to eventually get to the point.

“Ok, so this is a camera, but it doesn’t record images. You can use it in an enclosed room, such as a Booth, and it records _thermal_ images, so it can ‘see’ through walls. You won’t see facial features or hair, but Alastair’s height and thin frame are distinctive, right? Shouldn’t have any trouble telling if he’s there, at least. And if anyone else is in the place with him,” Charlie explained.

“That’s even more questionable than your extra Booth room program. But you’re right, it isn’t technically illegal as long as everyone in the room with the camera signs a consent. Can you synth one up?”

“Not exactly. I had to synth the parts separately and put them together on my own. Would take too long to make one right now, but I can run home and grab the one I’ve already got.”

“Not alone.”

Charlie rolled her eyes. “Not alone. You can come with me,” she agreed grudgingly. “As long as you don’t look when I get it out of its hiding place.”

With an eye-roll of his own, Balthazar led the way, Charlie following. At least they had a plan, even if it was taking longer than he was comfortable with.

 

*****

 

“You’re ready. Good. Oh, this will be so delectable. Time for you to show off your skills on a real person, Dean.” Dean had been exercising Alastair’s tutelage on a holographic person for the past two hours and was getting arousingly good at torture.

Taking that as an instruction to stop, Dean did. He hated being forced to emulate Alastair’s sadism under directive of croat. Hated the holographic screams his ministrations elicited. Hated the sick squelch of metal through flesh. Hated the way a part of him was so glad he was no longer the one in pain, that the feel of passing the torture on to someone else was something he was enjoying.

“Now, Dean. I want you to take your time with him; really enjoy peeling his skin back layer by layer. Bring him to such a height of pain that anything not painful will feel like the finest ecstasy. Then use his blood as lube and fuck him so hard the pain becomes pleasure,” Alastair ordered before stepping through the doorway that divided the holo-room into two separate spaces. A minute later, the wall disappeared, and the sadist was beckoning Dean over to the metal table where a man was strapped down, barely able to move an inch.

“Dean! Fight it!” the captive yelled. Dean blinked his eyes, the man’s identity creeping slowly into the part of his brain not addled by croat. Castiel.

“You aren’t listening to him, right Dean? Don’t need to hear anything from those lips but screams and cries of pain and pleasure. What you want is simple. Pure. Possessive. Mark him up and make him yours,” Alastair hissed. Sitting in a chair that offered the best view of the table, the thin man unfastened his pants, licking his lips in anticipation.

Advancing slowly toward the table, Dean took the scalpel from the tray, grabbing the dark curls on Castiel’s head and yanking back sharply, though not enough to hurt. Unblinking verdant gaze locked with azure pools, the words ‘mark him up and make him yours’ echoing through Dean’s mind, a command he couldn’t disobey. Not just because of the croat either. There was a part of him that really wanted to own Castiel. To warm the cold recesses of his heart. To chase the nightmares from his sleep. To show him that opening himself up, both physically and emotionally, didn’t have to lead to pain. To never let anyone hurt him again. _Anyone_. Holding the tiny blade to the light, which glinted off the metal like a white-hot welding spark, he allowed Castiel a few moments to focus his fear on the shining silver. Alastair was focused on the knife too, as Dean leaned down to press his lips to the juncture of neck and shoulder, sucking and worrying the skin firmly, drawing a deep purple to the surface, marking Castiel; making him his. As he drew back to examine his work, he lowered the scalpel, body blocking Alastair’s view of the tool. Actions concealed, he quickly sliced through the restraints, the holographic blade working on the generated leather as though they were both real. Blue eyes blinked up at Dean in wonder as he quickly severed the other bonds.

“What are you doing? Why don’t I hear screaming?” Alastair hissed, tented underwear deflating as he realized his orders weren’t being followed. “I told you to cut him! Carve him up. Make him scream. And you! Cas! Beg him for it. You want it; want the pain. You need to feel it, now!”

“No,” Dean stated firmly, finding himself somehow able to fight the compulsion. “I won’t hurt him. Ever.”

“Dean…” Cas whimpered. “I… I need…” shaking his head, he let out a low, keening whine. “I need you to… … No! I don’t want you to hurt me. I don’t want you to hurt anyone. You’re so kind, so caring. This isn’t who you are. Who Alastair wants you to be? That’s not you, at all,” Cas said more firmly, sitting up. He threw his arms around Dean, head crushed against the firm, muscled chest. “Don’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt me.”

“Shh, it’s ok. I won’t hurt you, Castiel. He can’t make me do that,” Dean assured, dropping the scalpel onto the table with a clatter as he wrapped his arms around the other man.

“This isn’t possible,” Alastair growled, standing up to glower at the pair. “Cas, pick up the scalpel. Stab it into Dean’s chest.”

Shuddering as the drug pushed against his will, Cas drew back, hand shaking as it reached for the discarded tool. Fingers trembling so hard he could barely maintain his grip, he lifted the surgical knife, drew back and, with a last desperate look at Dean's face… hurled it toward Alastair. “Run,” he instructed to Dean, sliding off the metal table and heading for the door. It was locked, but Cas was one of the best programmers in the dome. Convincing the computer to open the door took seconds and then he and Dean were running, heading to the exit past the kitchen.

“Stop!” Alastair commanded from the doorway of the holo-room, blood dripping in lines down his cheek from where the sharp scalpel had grazed him. Dean and Cas came to a halt with almost comical abruptness, arms pinwheeling as their legs locked while their torsos tried to continue forward with the momentum. The tall, thin man stepped out of the holo-room, blood and cut disappearing as he breached the holo-field’s perimeter. “Get back in the room. Now,” he demanded, voice a whispery hiss that had the hairs on the back of Dean’s neck standing straight. “If you won’t torture each other, I’ll just have to make you watch while I do it myself.”

Biting back a whimper of fear, Dean struggled against his feet, which were following orders, marching him back into the holo-room, Castiel close on his heels.

 

*****

 

“Alright, let’s head out. And for Heaven’s sake, stay out of sight,” Balthazar grumbled to Sam and Gabe. He and Charlie had fetched her ‘thermal imaging camera’ without incident, and now they just needed to find a Booth in view of Alastair’s place that they could get to without being seen. Sam had gotten a message while they were gone, saying that his dad had been located and was staying with Bobby and Karen until it was safe to go home. At least that was one person out of danger. But Cassie… Balthazar didn’t know what he’d do if anything happened to his little brother. The older sibling had never been able to form a close bond with any of the many partners he’d dallied with. Men, women, neutrals, duals, didn’t seem to matter who; no one had ever found a place in his heart and Balthazar had started to wonder if he was even capable of that kind of emotion when his little brother’s birth had changed his life. Never had anyone so precious ever existed and he’d be damned if he’d let anyone hurt Cassie. But he’d failed to protect him ten years ago, and now he had no idea if they’d find his brother at Alastair’s or if Cas had fallen afoul of some other danger.

But worrying about ‘what if’s wasn’t productive. Hopping a waiting TC, he headed to the central station of S7. They’d agreed it wouldn’t be safe to arrive closer to Alastair’s place. As he stepped out and the chair zoomed off, two others arrived in short order bearing Sam and Gabriel. Murmuring a repeat of the plan, he headed toward the Booth that offered the best view while allowing them to reach it undetected. Sam and Gabriel followed silently, though the way their hands were clasped together spoke volumes. But Sam was a good kid and Balthazar found himself thinking he was one of the few people in the dome he _might_ consider good enough for his half-brother, who he’d raised almost as much as he’d raised Cassie. The older Winchester, on the other hand, Balthazar wasn’t sure what to make of that one. He seemed like a hard-working, respectable young man, who’d raised his own brother just as Zar had raised his, and yet… something about him rubbed Balthazar the wrong way. But maybe that was just because he was sharing his bedroom with Cassie. And he had the air of someone who was no stranger to dating. Balthazar definitely didn’t want him taking advantage of his little brother.

Managing to make it to the Booth undetected, the three slipped inside, locking the door behind them. After popping Char’s program in so they could watch the streets around them through the walls that thought they were glass, Balthazar pulled out the camera and began fiddling with it, following the instructions the small red-head had given him. In a matter of minutes, the camera was operating, pointed toward what should be Alastair’s apartment. Person-shaped heat signatures emanated from the left side, though it wasn’t possible to tell whether they were in the living room, holo-room, or main bedroom. Two of the people were standing near one that must have been on a cool table or bed; the greens and blues suggestive of something colder than the furniture in the other rooms, most likely metal. On the other side of the room, another person reclined on a similar surface.

“There are four people there,” Sam pointed out needlessly.

“Appears so. More importantly, _who_ is the fourth person?” Balthazar replied. Splatters of heat were flying up from the reclining figure and the sec hoped Sam and Gabe didn’t see them, or the way the nearest standing body was swinging something down, cold on one edge, warm but fading on the other as the air cooled the substance on the object. At least there was the hope they may not be able to understand what they were seeing; it looked nothing at all like a normal video. But Balthazar knew. The person standing off to the side was watching the one laying down be tortured. Heat droplets flying up were specks of blood drawn by whatever instrument the other standing person was using, half its edge covered by warm-but-cooling blood. The sight might have made Zar nauseous if he hadn’t seen as bad, or worse, when he worked in the police force before the dome. A hundred and twenty years of an easy life where everything you needed was provided for a few hours of work hadn’t ever had a chance of eliminating sociopaths. Psychopaths, yeah, most of those had been kicked out or chosen a death sentence early on; occasionally a child grew up to be a psychopath, but they didn’t last long since they rarely controlled their behavior. But sociopaths were another story. They were sane enough to emulate those around them, passing for normal even with a lack of empathy. And not all sociopaths were killers; they could succeed in various professions. Alastair, however, was a sociopath of the worst kind. His sec work didn’t give him what his twisted brain needed, leaving him to torture in secret to fill his needs.

One of the figures moved to the other bed or table or whatever, leaning over the prone form, then returned to the other room, where the reclining person’s heat signature disappeared. Hologram? The torturer seemed to be listening to something said by the other person, then followed back to the other bed. Shit. Was Alastair teaching Dean or Cassie to torture? The observer sat down, heat intensifying in the groin area. That had to be Alastair. Balthazar didn’t think anyone else in the dome, not even Lucifer, got off on blood and power like the sadistic sec did.

“We need to go in,” Zar sighed, jumping up from his seat. They would have to restrain Alastair, keep him from giving orders to his captives, make sure he didn’t inject anyone else. Dean and Cassie were almost certainly already under the influence of croat and appeared to have already been given instructions. They might have to be restrained too.

“Wait, something’s happening,” Sam said, staring at the camera’s display.

“I know, that’s why we’re going in,” Balthazar replied with a roll of his eyes, though he spared a second to glance at the screen. The reclining person had sat up, was hugging the torturer. Then they picked up the small instrument that registered cold in the display, raising it up to strike. “Fuck! Run! Now!” Zar shouted, dashing out of the booth without even locking the door behind them. Racing across the street, they made it to Alastair’s building, pausing outside his door while Balthazar moved to override the security.

“Wait, you’re a sec. Let me,” Gabriel insisted, using his status as a Shurley to gain unauthorized entrance to the private dwelling. There were laws against secs doing that, but of course Chuck and his kin had unrestrained access anywhere in the dome. Balthazar could have used his own Shurley status, but Gabriel was right; it was better that he do it. It didn’t take long, but they had already been too late when they dashed out of the Booth. The only hope now was that they could get there before whoever had been stabbed could bleed out. Nanomedics worked quickly, but they couldn’t heal the dead.

As the door swished open, they saw Alastair standing outside the holo-room, Dean and Cas walking jerkily back in as though they were fighting the command. The sound of their entrance drew Alastair’s attention and he opened his mouth to speak, likely to order his captives to attack. However, he didn’t get the chance. Balthazar surged forward, clapping a hand over the open orifice before sound could escape as he wrenched the tall man’s elbows behind his back with his other arm.

“Bring him in here,” Cas instructed, stepping aside to clear the doorway. Balthazar raised an eyebrow at his little brother questioningly. “I’ll restrain him, but his last order was to get in the holo-room so I can’t go out there to do it. You’ll have to bring him in here,” the younger Novak explained as he went to grab the restraints off the nearby metal table.

“Are you under any other orders?” Balthazar asked, unsure whether it was wise to bring the sadist within range of his unwitting minions. But the way Alastair was twisting in his grasp made the decision for him; he couldn’t hold the snake for long. Dragging the taller man into the room, he allowed Cassie to bind his wrists behind his back, focusing on keeping a hand over Alastair’s mouth.

“I don’t think so,” Cas replied as he moved on to cinching Alastair’s ankles together. “Dean and I both managed to refuse the last orders he gave us. It’s possible they could try to reassert themselves, but I doubt it. Other than that, unless he gave me an order and told me to forget it, I think I’m in the clear. We won’t be able to leave this room until the drug wears off though.”

“How long since the last time you were dosed?” Balthazar asked.

“Not long. Maybe ten, fifteen minutes,” Cas replied, fastening the third restraint around Alastair’s knees then going to the holo-room’s control panel. “I think he wanted to let the other person’s dose wear off first, and to give Dean more time with me,” he frowned, displeasure aimed more at the controls than what he was saying. “Hey, Sam, can you synth up a med-137 for me?” he called.

“What’s that?” Sam asked as he ordered the med from the synthesizer. Taking the syringe that appeared, he handed it over to Cas without a thought.

“Paralyzing agent,” he replied, tracing his fingers along the ridges under Alastair’s adam’s apple with a look of obvious distaste, before carefully pushing the needle between two of the man’s vocal chords.

“Wait, if you paralyze his throat, he won’t be able to breathe,” Sam protested.

“Not the whole throat, just the vocal chords,” Cas clarified as he withdrew the needle and massaged around the injection site to help work the drug into the tissue.

“So he won’t be able to talk?” Dean asked, catching on.

“Exactly. Give it another minute then you can remove your hand, Zar.”

“How long do you think it will it last?” Sam wondered.

“This dose should work at least two hours. Could be closer to four, depending on his body’s tolerance and metabolism. Either way, we’ll give him another injection in a couple hours, just to make sure,” Cas shrugged.

“And how many laws is this breaking?” Dean frowned. Being rescued was great and all, but if they wound up facing punishment for it, what was the point?

“None, actually,” Sam responded as Cas was opening his mouth to reply. “Just like Alastair didn’t ‘technically’ break any laws either. Guess the lack of order works both ways.”

Alastair glared, shaking his head as much as he was able with Zar’s hand still over his mouth.

“Disagree?” Sam asked, huffing a laugh when the sadist nodded. “Too bad for you, it’s true. I’ve memorized every law on the books, and we haven’t broken a single one.”

Dean’s eyes widened a fraction and he beckoned Sam over, whispering something into his ear. Swearing softly, the younger brother dashed out of the holo-room, swiftly searching the contents of the apartment. Less than twenty minutes later he returned, showing something to his brother, who nodded, then quickly moving to the recyc and tossing the object in. As the device was deconstructed down to its individual atoms, Sam returned, a grin somewhere between sheepish and boasting on his face. “As I was saying; we haven’t broken a single law… that you have physical evidence of.”

Gabriel gave Sam a thoughtful look, then went to whisper in his ear much as Dean had done. With a sigh, the taller Winchester whispered something to Cas then went back to searching the apartment. Cas went to the holo-room’s computer and began rooting through files. Alastair protested as much as he could with the hand over his mouth on top of his vocal chords being paralyzed. 

“He’s a Shurley,” Balthazar pointed out, causing his prisoner to grudgingly settle down.

“Anything?” Sam asked, returning from his second search.

“No, sorry. You?”

“If they’re there, I can’t find them,” Sam sighed.

“What are we looking for?” Balthazar frowned, wondering why all the secrecy.

“Videos. Cameras. None of us have signed consent forms, and he doesn’t have a warning of filming going on. Gabe thought maybe we’d finally have something we could convict him for. But I couldn’t find any cameras, and Cas didn’t uncover any holographic cameras or recordings in the room’s programing.”

“I’ll check the main computer, once Dean and I are able to leave this room, but I doubt he’ll have anything there either.” Looking around the room, Cas frowned and turned back to the controls as Sam left to retrieve their things from the Booth. After punching in a few quick directives, the room changed, instruments and evidence of torture replaced by comfortable furniture arranged around a low table. 

Balthazar half-dragged, half-pushed the owner of the apartment into a chair set off a ways from the rest that was much softer than Alastair deserved. Ignoring the sadist in the corner, everyone else took a seat. It would have been nice to discuss their next course of action, but with Alastair in the room, that wasn’t the best idea. Which left them sitting in silence, Gabe curled against Sam’s side, Dean and Castiel sitting next to each other, both absorbed in thought and casting covert glances when the other wasn’t looking. Balthazar watched them all, wondering how he could possibly manage to keep them, along with the rest of the dome, safe.

 

*****

 

Next Chapter: Missing Viewpoints

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost overlooked that today was Monday and due for a posting. Spent a good while crying over Stan Lee. It's sad to lose someone who's brought so much good to the world, but he'll live on forever in our hearts and in his legacies.
> 
> As always, questions, comments, suggestions, corrections welcome and encouraged :D


	13. Missing Viewpoints

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Stop Luci (gabe’s name, not mine hehe) regroup and take the investigation in a different direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** T
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** none
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** just hints? :D (of destiel and sabriel)
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Castiel Novak, Dean Winchester, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Sam Winchester, Gabriel Shurley, Charlie Bradbury, Meg, Rowena MacLeod, Naomi Shurley
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** brainstorming, confrontation
> 
> Thanks to the amazing [CR Noble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/erudite12/pseuds/CR%20Noble) for being my beta! :D (does happy kitty dance :D )

“Sorry, lads, I’ve not heard back from him yet. But at least your little friend is doin’ better,” Rowena cooed in her pre-dome brogue. Everyone was seated or standing around her office, including Kevin, who still looked nervous but far less twitchy than before.

Balthazar frowned from where he leaned against the wall near the door to the hallway. “Chuck tends to take everything at his own pace. Hopefully he’ll reply soon. Though, knowing him, he’d be just as likely to show up unannounced if he came at all. I just wish we’d found something we could bring Alastair in for. I don’t like him being on the loose in the dome.” 

“There’s a law against using evidence gained in an illegal search, so even if we had found something we couldn’t use it,” Sam pointed out.

“No, the search only would’ve been illegal if done by a sec. You did the search, Sam, and I legally granted you access to the home,” Gabriel defended.

“Pretty sure that wasn’t legal; you only had access to the place because you’re a Shurley. I don’t think that gives you the legal right to invite me in.”

“Hey, there’s no law against it, so… sounds legal to me,” Gabe shrugged, tossing Sam a grin so reminiscent of how he used to be before… everything, that the taller boy felt tears welling in his eyes and turned away, blinking them back before they could overflow onto his cheeks.

“The question is, what do we do now? None of us are safe once Alastair gets out of those bonds,” Dean worried.

“We’re back to trying to find something we can convict him and Lucifer for.” Frowning, Cas sifted through his knowledge, trying to find some law the pair had actually broken. Abduction was illegal, but there was no way to prove anyone had been taken against their will when they’d all gone willingly either to protect someone else or under the influence of croat. And for who knew what reason, blackmail and mind controlling drugs weren’t illegal. “Hey, Zar, why did Michael refuse to make croat against the law?”

“He just said Chuck doesn’t like laws so it wasn’t worth making one over two isolated incidences.”

“What if, as we were discussing earlier, Michael is using croat himself. Should we confront Naomi? Ask her about it, since we know now that she’s the one who developed it?” Cas queried.

“Gabe?” Sam asked. “You know her best, right? Do you think we could bring her around, get her to stop making the drug for Michael? Assuming that’s what’s going on and she admits it.”

Gabe shook his head. “I may know her best, but that doesn’t mean I know her. She’s always been buried in her research. And I doubt she would have a problem with Michael using the drug to keep things peaceful in the dome. Ma’s all about order and structure. No idea how she and Dad wound up together, unless she just looked for the smartest person in the world and hooked up to lay claim on his genes. What made Dad say yes is anyone’s guess, ‘cause he’s more interested in jeans than genes.”

Sam and Dean chuckled, the former giving Gabriel a warm smile, the latter receiving a disapproving frown from Castiel. Meeting Cas’s gaze with a grin, Dean shrugged as if to say he couldn’t help what he found funny. “Order and structure, yeah, but how would she feel about the stuff Luc’s using croat for?” he asked.

“Really don’t know enough to say for sure,” Gabriel shrugged. “I don’t _think_ she’s a bad person, but like I said, even though she’s my ma, we haven’t really spent all that much time together. Once she realized I had no interest in science or technology, I was pretty much dead to her.” Eyes growing distant for just a moment in thought, Gabe shook his head as if to clear it, then looked at Sam to anchor himself. The tall young man moved closer, taking his friend’s hand and squeezing in reassurance. “So, yeah. I think if she knew about Luci’s operation, she would have put a stop to it after Cas, or at the very least after Sam and I. She wouldn’t want anyone having control over a Shurley.”

“I think I should go and talk with her myself,” Balthazar sighed. “Keep the rest of you safe. Rowena, would it be ok if everyone stays here for now?”

“No. I’m going with you,” Cas protested, not wanting his brother going alone.

“Me too,” Dean added. Sam gave him a pointed look, knowing he must have an ulterior motive if he was volunteering to do something that didn’t involve watching over his little brother like a hawk. “What? I wanna help,” Dean protested.

After eyeing him a moment more, Sam shrugged. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Cassie, you can’t come with me; you’ve only just been rescued. Dean too. The both of you ought to stay here and get some rest. And speaking of rescues… what happened in that room? Cassie, you said you both overcame the drug somehow?” Balthazar said.

Cas looked at Dean, and they both shrugged. “He ordered me to beg Dean to torture me and I just… didn’t. Couldn’t. Dean isn’t the type to enjoy hurting people, and I didn’t want to ask him to do it. Not sure why Dean was able to resist.”

“It was pretty much the same. He ordered me to hurt you, and you’ve already been hurt way more than you ever should have been. I couldn’t do that to you.”

“As I told young Samuel and Gabriel, the drug can’t make you do somethin’ that’s truly against your nature. That’s why you were both able to resist,” Rowena explained.

“But I’ve… it’s only flashbacks in dreams, but I’m fairly certain I’ve… begged to be hurt before when told to. Even though I didn’t really want to be hurt,” Cas admitted quietly.

“And I wasn’t able to resist Alastair’s directions when he told me to torture the holo-person he created for me to practice on,” Dean frowned.

“But Castiel, you said you didn’t want _Dean_ to hurt you. To hurt anyone; you strongly believed he wouldn’t want to do that so you didn’t want to ask him to. The orders in the past, while you didn’t relish the idea of being hurt, you didn’t have a strong reason not to want those doing the torturing to do it, even if you didn’t want it done. It’s a subtle difference. As for Dean, sure you were ok hurtin’ someone who didn’t exist. If it had been a real person, you might have been able to resist then. Or maybe it’s just Castiel that you can’t hurt. Perhaps you only would have been able to do what Alastair ordered to a person you thought of as bad. There’s no way to say for sure now. I can only say with any certainty that hurting _Castiel_ is not in your nature,” Rowena replied.

“But managing to defy those orders didn’t stop the drug from working for other orders?” Balthazar asked, just to clarify. Knowing the limits of the drug could definitely come in handy.

“No, but it… cleared my head a bit? And made it easier to resist the order to stab Dean. If I hadn’t already defied an instruction, I might have done it; stabbed him in a non-vital area. But, for whatever reason, I was able to resist that directive too, and threw the knife at Alastair instead.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I was able to interpret a command to ‘mark Cas up’ differently than what that asshole wanted. And to cut Castiel free, since I hadn’t been told not to. That seemed to surprise Alastair. Maybe they don’t get people able to resist often?” Dean suggested.

“That’s possible. Or it could be that they’ve learned not to give orders they think will be defied. Could be he just wasn’t expecting you and Cassie to be that close,” Balthazar postulated.

Both turned to look at each other, then averted their gazes, blushing at the synchronicity of their actions. “We aren’t,” Dean muttered, just as Cas said “we’re not that close.”

Charlie burst out laughing, Sam and Gabriel joining in while Balthazar raised an eyebrow pointedly. As a reporter, Charlie could definitely spot when people were lying, whether to her or to themselves.

“Relationship status aside-” Zar started.

“There’s _no_ relationship,” Cas and Dean both interrupted, blushing from necks to ears.

“Right. As I was saying, the point is, we now have at least a modicum of defense against being drugged. If we make sure to stay paired with someone we’d never hurt, they at least can’t turn us against each other.”

“Yeah, but they made Gabe and I do things, even though we’d never hurt each other,” Sam frowned.

“Things you’d already wanted to do?” Zar asked knowingly.

“Some of them, yeah,” Sam blushed.

“So, Cassie, Dean and I should be safe enough going to ask Naomi about her involvement in the creation of croat. Rowena? I already asked, but don’t think we got around to an answer. Is it okay if everyone else stays here?” Zar asked.

“Tha’s fine with me. Security here is probably be’er than at any of your homes, especially if we use one of the overnight dorms. But I’m afraid you’ll have tae make do with limited space an’ resources,” Rowena lilted, the contrast against Zar’s light pre-dome accent making her brogue more pronounced.

Everyone agreed to commandeer an unused dorm for the night, which had extra security that could be just as effective preventing entrance as it usually was for keeping patients in. Balthazar tried to insist on waiting a few hours before going to talk to Naomi, since Cas and Dean needed rest, but they insisted they were fine. Since there was no telling how quickly Alastair would escape his bonds, speed did seem the more prudent option, so they headed out while the others settled in.

 

*****

 

“Castiel! What a surprise. And Balthazar too,” Naomi exclaimed as she led her guests into her office. She’d been working in the lab, but none of her current experiments were time sensitive. She had a few minutes to spare for her step-sons. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” she added as she sat behind her desk, gesturing the men to sit in the chairs across the flat expanse. Naomi’s desk was just as big as Zar’s, but her office was smaller, the two chairs across from it metal and black vinyl, small and functional. It was obvious she didn’t use her office much, and when she did, it was usually to intimidate her guests.

“We wanted to talk to you about the drug used on Gabriel and Sam,” Cas stated without preamble and just a bit bruskley. He hadn’t missed her slight at not greeting Dean, who was standing behind Castiel’s chair.

“Of course. What would you like to know?”

“Did you create it?” Cas asked baldly before Zar could ask in a less accusatory manner. 

“What? Of course not. I’ve never seen anything quite so complex,” Naomi assured.

“And what about the drug used on me ten years ago?” Cas pressed.

Naomi pursed her lips, frowning. “Why would you ask that?” she responded, avoiding the question.

“So, that would be a ‘yes’, then?” Balthazar replied. He could read an evasion just as easily as Cassie.

“You didn’t answer my question. Why are you asking?” Naomi repeated.

Glancing over at his brother beside him, then up at Dean behind his chair, Cas affirmed they were all in agreement before replying. “We’ve found out who used the drug on Sam and Gabriel, and they’re not the only ones. Lucifer and his friend Alastair have been using it on 14-18 year olds to order them to have sex with adults for credit hours. And not only that, but people have been paying them to watch torture shows with some of those kids.”

“What? That’s impossible! Lucifer sai-” Naomi cut herself off, realizing she’d said something she hadn’t meant to.

“You _knew_ Lucifer was using your drug and did nothing about it?” Balthazar growled.

“Of course I did something about it. Ten years ago. He said he’d come across one of my samples and was just testing it out for Michael. When I asked about this new drug, he said he didn’t know anything about it. Are you saying he lied to me?” Namoi asked.

“More than once,” Balthazar confirmed. “For one thing, this ‘new’ drug, croat, isn’t new at all. From what we’ve gathered, Lucifer used Cassie to test his modifications on your pharmaceutical. Apparently at the time he hadn’t changed it that much, but he continued his experiments and alterations, we suspect using Gabriel as his new test subject, when the drug was effective enough to not leave the subject with disturbing dreams. Once he perfected it into the version you found in Sam and Gabe, he recruited some help and began using it on teenagers; old enough to legally consent to sex, which they do because he tells them to, using an altered version of _your_ drug.”

Naomi’s hand was over her mouth, eyes wide with shock. “He wouldn’t.”

“He would and he did. Unfortunately, I don’t have evidence, and even if i did, he hasn’t ‘technically’ done anything illegal; just immoral and wrong.” Zar said, voice hard despite his soft accent.

“I’ll make him stop,” Naomi assured.

“You mean you’ll tell him to stop and he’ll say he will, then he’ll just keep right on doing it?” Balthazar asked.

“No, I mean I’ll _make_ him stop. I’ve improved my own version over the years. I’ll inject him and tell him to forget all about this drug of his, and whatever he’s been doing with it,” Naomi clarified.

“That would be all well and good… if it worked. But he appears to have developed some type of preventative. He was injected with croat just yesterday and it had no effect.”

“He can’t have. I’ve been studying the drug that was in Sam and Gabe’s blood, and I haven’t found any way possible to inoculate against it. He may have developed a tolerance, or built up an immunity, but developing a preventative… that just isn’t possible,” Naomi insisted.

“Are you referring to Lucifer’s drug or your own?”

“Lucifer’s. Of course I have a preventative agent for mine.”

“Worried Michael will use it on you without your knowledge?” Balthazar questioned.

Naomi shook her head. “I’m his mother. He would never do that. The preventative was just in case anyone else got their hands on grace and abused it.” 

“Grace?” Dean asked, and Naomi frowned at him as though offended that he’d reminded her of his presence.

“My drug. I named it after my Mother.”

“So Michael _has_ been using your drug, this… grace?” Balthazar queried.

“When necessary, yes.”

“And by ‘necessary’, you mean whenever he wants?” Balthazar accused.

“Do you know how many people live in this dome?” Naomi demanded, continuing as Zar opened his mouth to reply. “There are 8,423,872 residents here. That’s a lot of people counting on us to keep them safe. Chuck may be a proponent of ‘live and let screw’, but that’s a dangerous way to run a city. Michael needs all the help he can get to keep this place running smoothly. Grace has the benefit of allowing Michael to interrogate suspected criminals while ensuring their replies are honest, and allowing them not to remember even having been questioned if they turn out to be innocent.”

“That’s outside the scope of Michael’s authority,” Cas protested.

“There’s no law against it,” Naomi countered. “And since Michael has final say on laws, there won’t be one.”

“Which is the problem. Lucifer is using his croat for nefarious purposes but, because it’s not illegal, we can’t stop him,” Castiel replied, struggling to keep his temper in check. Never mind that croat had been used on him both recently and in its early incarnations; it had been used on teenagers, little more than children, and even if they ‘forget’ it, being forced to prostitute themselves will have far-reaching subconscious effects. Not to mention the drug’s facilitation of Alastair’s sadistic tendencies. 

“Then you’ll just have to find some other law he’s breaking. Or make one that fits his crimes. Prostitution has been illegal in most societies throughout much of recorded history. I doubt Michael would protest making a law against that.” Naomi suggested.

“A lovely thought, but you’re overlooking two things. One, if prostitution is illegal, the law would punish Lucifer’s victims as much as him. And two, Chuck would repeal that law before it even became common knowledge,” Balthazar pointed out.

“Then make it illegal to have sex with anyone who hasn’t passed their challenge yet.”

“Michael wouldn’t pass that one; he thinks letting the challenge aged kids sell themselves for credit hours makes them miss out on study time, meaning the age of passing rises. Which gives Michael a larger workforce. Not that there’s enough work to fill all those hours. I imagine he has plans to remedy that. He probably wants to build an army to put the dome under martial law. And even if Michael _did_ pass that law, again, Father would veto it,” Balthazar sighed.

“Then make a law against public sex… no, nevermind; same problem. There must be something... what was it you said about torture? Surely that’s already illegal?”

Shaking his head, Balthazar replied, “Not if the one being tortured is a willing participant.”

“What about privacy laws? Chuck has enacted so many of those; surely they must be breaking at least one?”

“They film inside the Booths they use, but the drugged kids sign consent forms, and the patrons sign forms that are supposed to be confidentiality agreements but also include filming consent.”

“Could you have someone, posing as a customer, pretend to sign the document without actually signing it?”

“That would be entrapment. One of the few laws Chuck carried over from pre-dome. Modified to be stated in under ten words, of course,” Balthazar frowned. He actually liked Chuck’s insistence that all laws be written in under ten words; made it a hell of a lot easier to know what each law was, and much harder to slip stupid bullshit into proposed laws. But considering a sec had to witness a crime for it to _be_ a crime, retaining the law against entrapment made it almost impossible to convict anyone of wrongdoing.

“Well, you’ll just have to keep at it until you find something. Because there’s nothing illegal about grace and I have every intention of continuing to supply it to Michael. You must admit, it’s better than earlier methods of interrogation, right, Balthazar?” Naomi concluded with a pointed look at her step-son, who she seemed to recall having been in law enforcement.

“More effective? Yes. More humane? Undoubtedly. Less invasive? Not at all. You can’t interrogate people without them ever even knowing they’ve been interrogated,” the sec protested.

“Why not? If they aren’t doing anything wrong, then they have nothing to fear,” Naomi said, straightening in her chair and pinning Balthazar with an imperious gaze.

“There are varying levels of ‘wrong’, and only one level of punishment. Besides, how do you know Michael is conducting interrogations impartially? What if he’s telling people under the influence of your drug that they did something illegal when they didn’t, just because he suspects them of it?”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Naomi stated firmly.

“Just like Lucifer wouldn’t use a version of your drug to prostitute and torture over half the teenage population of the dome?” Zar shot back with a raised eyebrow.

“That… surely it isn’t that many,” Naomi frowned, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

“It is, but that wasn’t the point. You keep making statements regarding your sons’ characters when you don’t really know any of your children. Lucifer is a monster who cares about no one but himself, and Michael just wants everything and everyone to fit in a neat and orderly little box.”

Eyes narrowing, Naomi’s glare scorched first Balthazar, then Castiel, ignoring Dean as she had throughout the exchange. “Leave. Now,” she half-growled through her teeth. Though her tone was soft, her intent was not, anger practically vibrating and pulsing in the air around her.

Castiel stood, grabbing Dean’s arm automatically without even looking and dragging him out of the office. Pausing in the hallway to look back, he saw his older brother locked in a staring contest with their step-mother. Neither would be able to win, and neither would ever back down, so he marched back into the room, grabbing Zar with his free hand (the other still clamped on Dean’s arm, dragging him along almost comically), and forcibly pulling him into the hallway, then out of the building.

“Err, Cassie… you can let go now,” Balthazar protested as he was dragged toward the medical wing of The Institute. He cast a curious look at Dean, who seemed to find being dragged around by Castiel rather amusing. Cassie didn’t answer.

 

*****

 

Next Chapter: Missing Absences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting close to the end :D Also, Charlie was unusually quiet this chapter, but i think it's 'cause she and Meg were taking care of Kevin. 
> 
> As always, questions, comments, suggestions, corrections welcome and encouraged :D


	14. Missing Absences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few new faces take the investigation a step forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Teen
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** none
> 
>  **Chapter Pairings:** more hints of Destiel, Sabriel, CharM, and Chuck/everyone
> 
>  **Chapter Characters:** Castiel Novak, Dean Winchester, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Sam Winchester, Gabriel Shurley, Charlie Bradbury, Meg, Kevin Tran, Rowena MacLeod, Chuck Shurley, Linda Tran, Gertrude Milton, Anna Milton
> 
>  **Chapter Tags:** a bit of exposition, orgy - talked about but not shown :(
> 
> Thanks to the amazing [CR Noble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/erudite12/pseuds/CR%20Noble) for being my beta! :D *hugs*

“No! Let me go! I have to go find her! I have to make sure she’s safe!” Kevin’s high-pitched scream echoed from behind the locked door.

Dean and Cas exchanged a questioning look before turning in unison to Balthazar, who shrugged, having no more idea what was going on than they did. He palmed the scanner then waited when Meg’s harried voice came through the speaker, saying ‘just a minute, boys’. It was at least five minutes later when the door finally opened and Rowena let them in. Meg and Charlie were across the room, securing the last of the straps on the bed where Kevin lay. The boy appeared to have been tranquilized, his struggles weakening, eyelids drooping.

“What was that about?” Balthazar asked.

“Seems wee Kevin was a mite concerned about his mother,” Rowena lilted, arms spreading in an elegant shrug.

“Could she be in danger?” Cas asked, brows furrowed in concern.

“Kevin seems tae think so,” Rowena replied, though her cat-like gaze was on Balthazar. “Perhaps some brave captain might go an’ fetch her for the lad?”

“Has he tried contacting her?” Zar frowned, worry evident on his face.

“Aye, he’s sent a message, but heard no reply. Kevin was ready to storm off tae find her just before you got here. It was all the girls could do tae get him subdued.”

“Why didn’t Sam and Gabriel help?” Dean asked, his own worry rearing its head.

“Poor lads are asleep. I guess they were a wee bit tuckered out after the daring rescue.”

Dean followed Rowena’s gaze to where Sam and Gabriel were curled up together on one of the single beds lining the room. Seeing his brother’s relaxed smile as he slept entwined with his best friend brought a similar expression to Dean’s face. It was so good to see Sammy happy. The thought made Dean realize he hadn’t seen his little brother that relaxed or content in at least two years, probably more, and his smile faded as he remembered why.

“An’ you boys look like you could do with some sleep yourselves,” Rowena cooed, noting the way Castiel’s and Dean’s faces went through the same range of emotions while observing their sleeping brothers, neither aware of the way they mirrored each other. She gave it weeks, maybe a month tops before the two fell together properly. Hard to say for sure on the sexual part though. Dean was obviously the physically affectionate type, but Castiel was just as plainly not. However, she really shouldn’t be standing around pondering the state of the lads’ affections. Not when there was someone more her taste who didn’t appear to be attached to anyone at the moment. “Captain, if you’re not too tired, perhaps you and I could see to locating young Kevin’s mother? I’m worried that if he wakes an’ she’s not here, he could regress to the distress he was in when the girls brought him to me.”

“Brother, you need to sleep too,” Castiel interrupted, shaking his head.

“I know, but we really do need to find Mrs. Tran and bring her here. Anna and Gertrude too.”

“Anna is your partner. Can’t she bring Gertrude here? And they can pick up Mrs. Tran on the way,” Cas suggested, refusing to relinquish his concern for his older brother.

“I’m not so sure Anna is the best-”

“Now, now. Your brother’s right. You’re dead on your feet an’ you’ll be no help to anyone if you pass out while tryin’ to push yourself past your limits,” Rowena cautioned, making sure the door was locked before herding Captain Rosen-Novak toward a bed, Castiel and Dean following.

“But-”

“No ‘buts’ now, dearie. You just get yourself intae bed. I’ll message Anna for you,” Rowena cooed, helping Zar out of his shoes and under the covers, though he was still trying to protest around unwanted yawns. “You lads too,” Rowena added to Dean and Cas as she pulled the covers up, tucking them under Zar’s chin.

“You do know I’m not even close to being a child, right?” Balthazar chuckled at being mothered.

“You’ve all been going for two days straight now. Someone has to be reasonable around here,” Rowena chided, moving to the beds Dean had pushed against the wall so that Castiel could sleep without fear of rolling off. Smiling, she tucked the boys in as well, wondering again how long it would be before the two discovered their feelings ran deeper than friendship. “You too, girls. Intae bed with you.” 

“I’m just gonna message Mom and Anna first, and ask them to pick up Mrs. Tran on the way over. I know you said you’d do it, but Anna isn’t gonna listen to someone she doesn’t know,” Charlie replied from the computer where she was composing her message.

“That makes sense, but then straight off tae bed with you. And I’ll have to enter a code before you can send the message out. That’s part of the room’s security,” Rowena replied, making sure Gabriel and Sam were covered and cozy before moving on to check Kevin.

“I don’t do anything ‘straight’,” Charlie laughed as she typed, “but I will go to bed. Don’t know why I’m so damn tired.”

“Oh, well, as I said before, it can’t be because you’ve been goin’ practically non-stop for at least two days now, an’ you’ve been under a lot of stress with this whole Lucifer business. You do know stress can cause wrinkles, don’t you, dearie?” Rowena replied, glancing over the message Charlie had finished typing before coding in her authorization and sending it.

“No one really gets wrinkles anymore,” Charlie chuckled, though she made her way over to the bed where Meg was already bunking down. Crawling in beside her new lover, she gave the dark-haired young woman a goodnight kiss that lasted much longer than a simple peck and involved enough tongue that she was tempted to forget about sleep in favor of more pleasurable activities. But, since they were in a room full of people, she reluctantly broke the kiss as Rowena cleared her throat beside the bed. 

Grinning, Meg snuggled up against Charlie, whose protective arms wrapped around her and held her close.

With a chuckle and a fond look, Rowena tucked the covers around them securely, then turned to leave.

“Hey, you’re gonna get some sleep too, right?” Charlie yawned sleepily.

“I’ll rest, but sleep can wait a bit. I wasn’t awake most of last night planning a rescue like you lot were. Until you’re all up and about, I’ll wait for messages and look into finding Chuck,” Rowena smiled, heading over to the computer as Charlie’s head dropped onto the pillow, nuzzling against Meg’s forehead. Apparently, once she’d stopped moving, exhaustion had caught up with her.

The little rag-tag group had done a good job of figuring out what was going on in the dome, something Rowena had suspected but not had time or resources to ferret out. But Rowena was in her element now that she knew about the prostitution ring Lucifer had been running with the help of her son. She’d… not hidden, really, just postponed Fergus’s involvement being found out by asking Gabriel not to remember her lad until after he’d had a chance to come forward on his own. True, it was slightly unethical, but a mother can’t help her instincts, even if they’d only appeared well after her son was grown and on his own. Perhaps her late blooming motherly instincts were responsible for her interest in psychology. But that was neither here nor there. What she’d meant to be doing was going back through her patient files to earmark the ones likely involved in either side of the prostitution ring. Of course she didn’t work with everyone in the dome; that would be beyond even her abilities. But over the past hundred and twenty years she’d had at least one session with close to half the population. In the past ten years or so, she’d seen several thousand, so there were quite a few files to go through.

About halfway through, she took a break to synth some more tea. She’d started off separating the files into two piles. Or folders, whatever. The silly electronic version of piles. Involved, and not involved. Then she’d added possibly involved. Then she’d divided involved into kid and customer. Then she added minion for those probably working with Lucifer. Then she divided minion into minion by choice and minion by conditioning. There were so many nuances to the whole situation that she wasn’t surprised she’d never discovered the nature of it, though she had suspected there was something going on in the dome the past ten years. Even if the volume of patients hadn’t been unusually high, the nature of their problems would have suggested as much. Of course, she hadn’t thought to try regression therapy; none of her patients had realized they were missing time and she hadn’t stumbled upon indicators of of it. There were a few with signs of repressed memories, but those patients hadn’t wanted to try to learn what they’d repressed.

Just as she was sitting back down with her tea, honey and a splash of milk, the door wooshed open. Instinct had Rowena up and at the foot of Kevin’s bed, protecting her most vulnerable patient before she even knew what she was protecting him from. The room was supposed to be secure. There shouldn’t have been any way for anyone to enter without her authorization. Well, the Charlie lass might’ve been able to bypass security, but she was sound asleep with her lover.

“Rowena. Good to see you again.”

Eyes, wide, Rowena let her protective stance relax. “Chuck! I must say, I wasna really expecting you.”

“To be honest, neither was I,” Chuck grinned sheepishly. “I’ve been hoping the dome could take care of this little speed bump without me.”

“Little speed bump? Is tha’ what this is?” rowena asked, auburn eyebrow raised.

“Considering we’re all pretty much immortal now, yeah. Ten years isn’t long at all once you start thinking in terms of living centuries rather than decades. Honestly, I was hoping Balthazar could work things out without me, so I was giving him time to do that. Unfortunately, he took too long. Lucifer’s developed an inoculation against his drug, Naomi’s developed one against her drug, and no one’s realized how dangerous Michael is getting. Or that Naomi has gone back to her BEC experiments.” Chuck sighed, entering the room and heading to the synth. 

A petite woman with short dark hair entered behind him, eying Rowena warily as she passed, making her way to her son’s bedside. “You can remove the restraints now,” Rowena said before Mrs. Tran could complain about her son’s treatment. “He was like to hurt himself tryin’ tae go after you,” she explained as Mrs Tran began unfastening the straps. Two other women entered as well, both with red hair, one obviously a pre-domer. That would be Charlie’s half-sister Anna and their mother, Gertrude Milton.

“Don’t wake him, Linda,” Chuck cautioned, bringing four mugs over to the long dining table meant to seat up to fifteen people. “They’ve all had a very long week. Just sugar, right?” he added, handing her a steaming mug of coffee as she joined him and the Miltons.

“As if you don’t already know how I take my coffee,” she chuckled, sitting down and taking a sip.

“Ah, well, you know,” Chuck shrugged with an impish grin.

“What did you say about BEC experiments? Never heard of that before,” Gertrude Milton asked, taking the coffee he handed her without any pretense of asking how she liked it.

“Bio-genetically Engineered Children. I put a stop to her experiments after Raphael,” he replied, frowning in remembrance of his lost son as he handed his daughter, Anna, her mocha and sat with his own remaining cup. “She resumed the experiments around forty years ago, after enough time had passed that she thought I’d forgotten about it. That was one of the reasons I gave her Gabriel; I hoped she’d abandon the research if she had a naturally born child of her own. She thought she was too old to conceive, but I may have given her a bit of help there. Not that it mattered; she wasn’t any more motherly to him than she was to her GEC,” Chuck explained between sips of his coffee.

“She continued her experiments, using DNA from different parents and aging the children a year or two less each time. So far, there have been ten; Lilith (aged to 19), Azazel (aged to 17), Ramiel (15), Dagon (14), Asmodeus (13), Cain (11), Abaddon (10), Alastair (8), Meg (5), and Ruby (2). The only ones who haven’t had to be removed from the dome are Ramiel, who lives alone and works at The Zoo, Cain, who lives with his wife Colette, both of them working at The Garden, Alastair and Meg, both secs who live alone, and Ruby is still at the orphanage. All the others had violent impulses they were unable to control. Sometimes I wonder if they get souls when created that way,” he added, glancing over to where Charlie and Meg were curled up on their bed, expression tender but sad. 

“Alastair, well, he hasn’t been reigning his nature in at all, but he’s far more careful about it than his older semi-siblings. Ramiel and Cain both have the violent tendencies but manage to keep them in control. Meg seems to have turned out ok; the need for physical aggression appears to be weaker in her. And I have hopes for Ruby. But considering there doesn’t seem to be a correlation between the length of artificial aging and the tendency toward violence, there’s no guarantee they’ll be any better. After all, Michael didn’t have his age accelerated at all, yet seems to have developed a penchant for order by force. We’ll have to do something about him too or we’ll all find ourselves living under marshall law.”

“Artificial aging?” Rowena queried with an arched eyebrow.

“Yeah. I’m sure you see the problem with that. No time to develop conscience and empathy. It’s hard to fault Lucifer for being the way he is when he was her first BEC and Naomi aged him all the way to 21, the age of adulthood back then, just because she wanted to have a progeny without having to deal with raising him. Michael and Raphael were also BEC, but I insisted on raising them myself with no artificial aging, so Michael turned out a bit better than Luc. Raph probably would have too, though he did have trouble controlling his temper. And now I think Michael may be overcompensating. He’s less emotional than most people; more analytical. So he thinks order will be better for everyone, even if it’s by force. Of course he’s wrong, but I don’t know if he has the capacity to understand that.”

“What about the drugs you mentioned?” Linda Tran asked.

“Chemical mind control, basically. Naomi developed it originally, to make her BEC forget their origins while still retaining the knowledge she gave them while they were developing. Years later, Lucifer came across it in her lab one day when he was visiting and snuck a sample out. He began experimenting with it, making it more effective. Then when Naomi discovered it in Castiel’s system, she confronted Luc, and told him to stop. But his enhancement gave her ideas so she made her own drug, grace, more effective. And of course, Lucifer never really stopped his experiments either. He perfected his own version, croat. And told Michael about Naomi’s drug, which he began using for interrogations. So now there are two strong drugs, grace and croat, that make a person compliant to the will of someone else and erase the memories of everything that happened while drugged, replacing them with new memories so they don’t even realize they’ve lost time. And the person I left in charge refuses to make a law against the drugs because he’s using them for his own purposes.”

“So you’re saying Naomi uses her drug, grace, to erase memories from children she creates in her lab, and Michael uses that same drug to interrogate people without them knowing they’re being interrogated?” Gertrude asked, and Chuck nodded. “So then, what is Lucifer using his version for?”

Fiddling with his cup for a moment before draining it and standing, Chuck replied, “Balthazar can explain that better tomorrow. And I think we’ll all be able to understand that explanation better if we actually get some sleep.” A grin that was only half-forced spread across Chuck’s face. “So, who’s up for a bedtime orgy?”

Rowena laughed. “Nice segway there, Chuck. But I’m in. The bed in the dorm master’s room should be big enough for everyone if we don’t mind a bit ‘o snuggling once we’re ready to sleep.”

Linda gave the red-head an appraising gaze, then grinned. “There are worse ways to spend a night.”

Gertrude shrugged. “If everyone else is in, I may as well join too.” Gathering everyone’s empty cups, she tossed them into the recyc.

“Chuck, could you-”

“Already ahead of you, Row” Chuck replied, going to the dorm’s door and adjusting the lock’s programming so that no one would be able to hack it, ensuring no one could enter or leave.

“Good lad,” Rowena grinned.

“Lad? I’m older than you, you know.”

“You just go on thinkin’ that, dearie.”

“Wait, how old _are_ you?” Chuck asked, surprised to realize there’s something he doesn’t already know.

“It’s not polite to ask a lady her age,” Rowena chided with a mysterious smile as she headed into the room’s only separate bedroom. “Now, how about you get in here and show us girls how little age really matters when it comes to the pleasures of the flesh?” 

“When you put it that way…” Chuck grinned as he followed Linda and Gertrude into the room, door swishing shut behind them.

 

*****

 

Next Chapter: Missing Points

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting closer to the end :D the main story will wrap up soon, then i plan to do steamy timestamps for the main characters :D
> 
> As always, questions, comments, suggestions, corrections welcome and encouraged :D


	15. Missing Points

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knowledge consolidated, options explored.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Older Teen  
>  **Chapter Warnings:** none unless an adult walking in on a parent bothers you :D  
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Chuck/Rowena/Linda/Gertrude, Balthazar/Rowena flirting, Sabriel, CharM, Destiel hints  
>  **Chapter Characters:** Castiel Novak, Dean Winchester, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Sam Winchester, Gabriel Shurley, Charlie Bradbury, Meg, Rowena MacLeod, Chuck Shurley, Kevin Tran, Anna Milton-Bradbury, Linda Tran, Gertrude Milton  
>  **Chapter Tags:** brainstorming, humor, flirting
> 
> Thanks so much to [CR Noble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/erudite12/pseuds/CR%20Noble) for being my beta! :D

“Rowena, I-” Balthazar stopped short as the door swooshed open, jaw dropping at the sight of naked flesh and tangled limbs on the bed. “Whose idea was it to have an orgy and not invite me?” he asked with a grin in his light, pre-dome accent. “Because I’m always up for a ménage à … what’s french for four?”

“G’morning Balthazar,” Chuck yawned, head poking up from among the sprawled bodies.

“Oh. Chuck. Wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Would it kill you to call me Dad? No, don’t answer that. Are the other kids up yet? We have a lot to talk about.” Chuck stretched, careful not to dislodge the women nestled around him.

“Balthazar,” Rowena lilted with a coquettish smile when Chuck’s movement managed to wake her anyway (she’d been snuggled closely against him), “here tae join in?”

“Considering my father’s in the mix, I’ll regretfully have to pass,” Balthazar grinned with a wink, his light, pre-dome accent even sexier than usual in the given context.

“So then, if Chuck wasn’t here…”

“Any time, my dear, any time.”

Linda and Gertrude had awoken during that exchange, each grabbing an edge of the covers they were all sprawled on top of to cover as much of themselves as they could.

“Apologies, ladies. I’ll leave you to get dressed in peace.” Zar smiled, gaze lingering over each woman in turn in a display of aesthetic appreciation before he left, door swooshing closed behind him. Synthing himself a cup of strong coffee, he went and sat at the long table, waiting for the other pre-domers to join him -- expectedly, with clothes on, though not necessarily preferably.

After each synthed up breakfast and beverage, they chatted and ate while the younger members woke in ones and twos to join them. 

Kevin woke first, sitting up and looking around in confusion, then dashing to the table and giving his mom a big hug once he spotted her. She worried over him, synthing his breakfast and seating him beside her with constant hugs and encouragement. 

Next to wake were Sam and Gabe, the latter yawning widely as his companion stretched the kinks out of his tall frame. Seeing Chuck seated at the head of the table, Gabe grinned, going over to clap a hand on his shoulder and say, “Hey, Dad. Good ta see ya.” Rowena and Gertrude moved to sit across from Linda and Kevin, allowing Gabe the place beside his father with room for Sam on his other side.

Anna was the next one up, forgoing breakfast in favor of nutrient fortified coffee. Since the seat beside Zar was open, she took it, using the time to get caught up on her partner’s recent activities since he hadn’t been to the office since the day before last. As it turned out, she was the one with more information to share, letting him in on all the things their father (yes, Zar and Anna were technically half-siblings) had spoken of the night before. Balthazar kept his news to himself, wanting to go over everything only once.

Gertrude and Linda were putting their dishes in the recyc when Charlie woke, stretching and carefully disentangling from Meg. Once out of bed, she spotted her mom coming toward her and let out a squeak of pleased surprise, rushing to wrap her mom in a big hug. The last time they’d gotten together was ages ago, and she hadn’t realised how much she missed and worried for her mother until they were face to face. Grabbing breakfast, she and her mom sat together, catching up while Charlie ate.

Meg was slow to wake, pouting at the cooling empty spot next to her and stretching languidly in bed. Eventually, she dragged herself out from under the covers, giving her messy hair a quick finger comb, after which it fell into place. Joining Charlie, Meg gave her lover a quick peck on the cheek before digging in to her own meal.

Just as Sam and Gabriel were discussing whether they should go wake their brothers, who had somehow wound up spooning during the night, Dean’s eyes fluttered open, widening as he felt the arms wrapped around his chest. “Castiel?” he said quietly, voice rough with sleep. The man sleeping behind him nuzzled into his back, mumbling something incoherent before his brain kicked in and he sprang backward across his own bed, stopping only when his spine pressed into the wall.

“Dean? I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean-” Cas sputtered.

“Hey, no worries. You were asleep, man. Can’t help what happens when you’re not awake, right?” Dean interrupted.

“But that’s no excu-”

“You don’t need an excuse dude. I don’t mind, really. C’mon, let’s go get some grub. Oh, hey, what’s with all the new people?” Dean asked as he stood and stretched, shirt rucking up to unintentionally give a teasing glimpse of firm abs.

“Father?” Cas said as he scrambled across the beds to stand beside Dean, pointedly not thinking about the firm, freckled skin he hadn’t really looked at.

“Yep, in the flesh,” Chuck grinned.

“I… wow. You’re here,” Cas mumbled, drawn toward his dad as though in a daze.

“Hey, I’m not gone _that_ much,” Chuck chided, standing to wrap his arms around his last gift from the one woman he’d ever truly loved.

Cas huffed against his chest, returning the hug. “Yes you are. But it’s ok; I know why you don’t like to spend much time at home.”

“You don’t. Not really. But that’s ok. I’m here now,” Chuck replied, squeezing tighter before stepping back and leading Castiel to the seat on his right, which Zar had vacated to give his little brother the place of honor. Anna rose too, smiling at Dean, who gave her a confused look as he set the breakfast and coffee he’d gotten for Cas on the table in front of him, then went to synth his own repast. When he came back, he took the empty seat anyway, though he still didn’t get why Anna had moved for him.

“So, Chuck, now that everyone’s awake,” Zar commented a few minutes later, sitting on top of the far end of the table, “Maybe we could get down to business?”

“I suppose we should,” Chuck grimaced. “Balthazar, how about you start. What do you know of what’s been going on and why did you want me here?”

“I guess a recap would be good for the new members of our little band of brothers and sisters. What we’ve learned so far is that, around ten years ago, Lucifer began experimenting with a drug which he now calls croat. It makes the drugged person compliant to whomever has added their DNA to it, overwriting memories of the time drugged with whatever story the controller tells them. As far as we know, his earliest experiments were conducted on Cassie, who realized something was wrong both by a lack of knowledge his memories said he should have learned when he was studying, coupled with disturbing dreams which were, in reality, pieces of memories from when he was drugged. Naomi examined him, discovered the foreign chemical in his system, and removed it. At the time, neither Cassie, Naomi, or myself knew where the substance had come from,” Balthazar explained, hopping off the table while he spoke to go and synth a fresh cup of coffee.

“I didn’t see any sign of the drug for several years. It appears now as though he had continued improving it and switched his experiments to young Gabriel. Seven or eight years ago I got my first report of a missing teenager. Several hours later, during a periodic trace check, I found the boy at The Zoo and returned him to his parents. He insisted he had been at The Zoo the entire time. I had the parents watch for any of the symptoms Cassie had, but they said he was fine. My instinct insisted the cases were connected, but I had no proof A couple years later there was another missing teen incident. Two the next, and so on. This year there have been 16 including Gabriel and Sam. So many kids have been failing their Challenges that parents have been checking on them more.” Zar paused, taking a deep breath and several sips of coffee before continuing.

“And brothers,” Dean mumbled when the sec paused.

“Wha’s that, dearie?” Rowena asked.

“I said brothers too, not just parents. Castiel and I were looking for Gabriel and Sam the day before their Challenge,” Dean spoke up with a glance at Cas.

“Right. That’s what kicked the investigation into high gear; Cassie and Dean came to me looking for Sam and Gabe. I don’t need to go over everything that’s happened in the past week. What it boils down to is the discovery that Lucifer and his friend Alastair have been running a prostitution ring, using the drug on teens who haven’t passed their challenges yet to make them compliant. Alastair has also been selling ‘torture shows’ where people can pay to watch teens be tortured, again under drugged consent. Apparently, Michael is aware of the prostitution portion, though doesn’t know about the torture shows, the drug being used to force compliance, or the fact that all the credit hours earned go to Lucifer and his cronies rather than to the teens supposedly earning them. Nothing they have done is technically illegal, and when I suggested Michael make a law against the type of drug used on Gabriel, he refused. We have since learned that Naomi is the drug’s original creator, and she has been supplying that drug to Michael for use in interrogations. As for Michael, he’s been allowing the prostitution, thinking that time spent working is time not spent studying which has been causing the age of passing to raise steadily over the past ten years. We aren’t sure why he wants people having to work more hours when there’s already not enough work to go around, but I suspect he has plans. Have I missed anything?” Balthazar asked, finishing his coffee and synthing yet another cup.

“Naomi’s drug is a slightly different version from the one Luc uses, and both she and Lucifer are inoculated against or immune to their own chemical,” Cas added helpfully.

“And we haven’t come up with any passable laws that would make Lucifer’s operation illegal. Oh, and Lucifer’s an ass,” Dean tacked on, having been in the meeting with Naomi too. The ass comment was obvious, but he included it on Sam’s behalf. Dean still hadn’t forgotten the sight of his brother’s hair draped over the guy’s lap, or the dismissive way he’d tossed Sam aside and had Meg take over. Idly, he wondered if Charlie knew what her apparent girlfriend had been up to. They hadn’t spoken much, but from what he’d seen of her, Dean thought he and the quirky reporter could become friends.

“Right. And Chuck, I asked you to come because we’re out of ideas, and you’re the god of innovative thinking,” Zar concluded.

“You also neglected to mention Crowley’s involvement, but we’ll let that slide. Now, as for-” Chuck started, frowning at Balthazar when he cut his father off.

“Wait. How much of that did you already know?”

“All of it? Just because I gave up driving doesn’t mean I’m ignoring where we’re going.”

“How long?”

“What?”

“How long have you known what Lucifer was up to?” Balthazar demanded.

“... Since he stole a sample of Naomi’s drug?” Chuck shrugged, as if that were obvious.

“Since- You’ve known since the beginning and done nothing to stop it?”

“I’ve known about Naomi’s BEC experiments even longer and didn’t stop them either. Just because I know everything doesn’t mean I should use that knowledge. I needed to see how this society would develop and react without outside interference.”

“Bullshit! That’s just fucking bullshit!” Balthazar exclaimed. “You’re just too damn lazy, and too wrapped up in your own pleasure to bother thinking about anyone but yourself.”

“Zar, I get that you’re mad, but-”

“Mad? Mad?!? Piss off. What right do you have to treat eight and a half million people like some lab experiment?”

“None. But what right do you have to expect me to step in?” Chuck countered, mustering a bit of ire himself. “Even if we don’t age or get sick, we’re not invincible. There will come a time when I’m not around to snap my fingers and fix everything for you. You and every other citizen here need to take responsibility for yourselves. If you’re wanting this to be a monarchy, you’ll have to live with my word being final and me having the power to disintegrate anyone who disagrees with me. Don’t like that idea?” he spat, barreling on over Zar’s sputtered attempt at an answer. “Me either. Which means we have to know what works and what doesn’t before we go whipping up a Constitution. Now, did you want my help or not?”

Balthazar glared, huffing out a heated breath of air. Before he could make a reply though, Gabe stood, putting a calming hand on his father’s shoulder. “Dad, c’mon. This isn’t what we’re here for. We need solutions, not blame or anger. We can’t change what’s already happened, but we can move past it and fix things now, and that’s what’s important.”

“Gabe’s right,” Sam said, taking hold of Gabe’s free hand and squeezing. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do moving forward.”

“Right. Well, I haven’t just been resting on my laurels. Over the past 30 years or so, I made contact with as many of the people who’ve been banished as I could. Started out with around 50 people and that number has steadily grown as word spread and more people have gotten tossed out of their domes, including the BEC who have been evicted from Heaven. They’ve been working on a new dome; one for people who prefer violence or chaos. Not the happiest of places, but people won’t be out in the wilderness with little to no idea how to survive anymore. They’ll have to fend for themselves, keep the machinery and technology working. People who move there will have to set up their own rules, which we’ll leave up to them as long as they don’t interfere with any of the other domes.”

“That’s it? That’s your big idea? A glorified jail? I thought you didn’t believe in jails?” Balthazar countered.

“I don’t, but I don’t like the idea of people having to hunt and forage for food or die of hypothermia or any of the other problems they face in the wilderness. This way, at least they have food, clothing, and shelter. It may be Hell, but it’s better than nothing. As a third choice for law-breakers,” Chuck explained.

“Hell?” Dean asked.

Chuck shrugged. “It needed a name. And since it’s connected to Heaven, and will be populated by… let’s say less than moral citizens, I felt Hell was a fitting name.”

“Connected?” Cas queried.

“Yeah, with a waystation halfway through the tunnel where people can visit if they want. Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of the security. There won’t be any unauthorized access. Balthazar and I will be the only ones with the codes at first. Once you’ve got Heaven regulated and running smoothly, Zar, you can pick one other person to give the code to. I think it best if there are always three who know it, just in case.”

“Me? Why me?” Balthazar asked.

“I told you, I’ve been watching. Of all the people in the dome, I think you’re best suited to run it. Michael obviously wasn’t a good choice. Castiel and Gabriel are still too young to be taken seriously. Lucifer’s never even been an option. You’re a sec, and a detective, not to mention fair and level-headed. Most of the time,” he added with a pointed look, reminding his son of his earlier burst of anger. “And you don’t believe in over-regulation, though you know some laws are necessary. I think you’re the best choice for the job.”

“Why don’t you do it? You’ve had a good long break; take up the reins yourself,” Balthazar suggested.

“Actually, once things here are straightened out, I’m planning on doing some traveling. Ours isn’t the only dome that’s run into a few kinks in the cable. I never really meant to flip society on its head, that’s just how things turned out,” Chuck replied.

“So you’re just going to leave me holding the bag and bugger off to wherever and expect me to get this whole dome back on track?”

“Basically?” Chuck shrugged. “Like I said, I know you can do it. And I’ll help before I leave.”

“And you’ve built this new dome you plan on populating with criminals?” Balthazar reiterated.

“Technically, they built it. I just provided the tools and knowledge. And there are enough decent people there to keep the center and south sector fairly safe. Those areas are walled off from the other three wards where the more violent offenders will have free reign.”

“Decent people? Aren’t they all criminals?” Cas interrupted.

“Well, sure, but since the punishment is the same regardless of the crime, there are plenty of decent people who’ve been evicted from their homes. Laws are determined by each dome, and some are a lot more rigid than we are here. And even we have evicted good people who used violence in instances where it really was justified. Speaking of which, I was thinking we might want to come up with some lesser punishments for lesser crimes. Well, there wasn’t a category of lesser crimes before, but I’m thinking we should make one. Maybe death or banishment for violence or infringing on privacy, but some type of community service for things like theft, violence in defense of self or others, committing unethical actions without intent of doing harm, unwise scientific exploration, things like that,” Chuck suggested.

“You’re saying you want to give Lucifer, Alastair, and Naomi community service?” Balthazar asked, eyebrow raised.

“Oh, no. Naomi said she would stop her BEC experiments but resumed them anyway. Lucifer promised Naomi years ago that he would stop experimenting with the mind control drug, but he didn’t. And Alastair and Lucifer have both promised to leave someone alone and then gone back on that promise. All three have repeatedly broken verbal contracts. And all of those infractions were witnessed by me. My laws don’t require corroborating evidence if I’m the witness.” 

“There’s a law against breaking verbal contracts?” Sam asked, surprised. He hadn’t come across that in his legal research.

“Of course, verbal or written. Liars are one of the worse things to have in a society. Not the little white lies, like ‘hey, that toupe doesn’t look synthetic at all’ or ‘you have such a great singing voice’. No, I’m talking about people who say one thing and then do the opposite. Makes it so no one can trust anyone. So yeah, it was one of the first laws on the books. Might not have made it into the databases, but I’m sure I have it written somewhere in my early dome tomes,” Chuck shrugged.

“Dome tomes? Really?” Gabe snickered.

“Hey, it was 120 years ago. I was going through a rhyming phase. Not every idea is gonna turn out to be genius,” Chuck defended.

“I know, Dad, but you do realize you don’t have to go to the opposite end of the scale; there is such a thing as middle ground,” Gabe laughed.

“Hey, do I need to remind you what I had to sacrifice for you to be born?” Chuck teased, standing to get Gabriel into a headlock and give him a noogie.

“Yeah, yeah, you had to ‘consummate’ your marriage, meaning you can no longer get an annulment. Though I’m pretty sure, after over a hundred years, the marriage was official whether consummated or not. And thanks so much for enriching my childhood with that little story every time you couldn’t handle me,” Gabe griped good-naturedly as he ducked out from his dad’s grasp, colliding with Sam in the process.

Eyes sparkling with mirth, Sam caught Gabe, pulling his smaller friend into his lap. “Hey, am I going to have to separate you two?” he teased.

“Only if that means you’re going to carry me off to somewhere private,” Gabe grinned.

Both Dean and Cas groaned at their brothers’ public display of affection, though they were obviously pleased to see Sam and Gabriel smiling and laughing together.

“Well then,” Balthazar’s light accent interrupted, “back to the matter at hand. What do we do about Michael? We may be half-brothers, but I doubt he’ll just step aside for me to take over.”

“True. But he won’t have a choice either. There may be no law against using croat or grace, but there is one against unwarranted interrogation, which is what he’s been using grace to do,” Chuck replied, heading over to synth himself a fresh drink, this time hot cocoa with marshmallows.

“So that’s it? Everything’s solved, just like that?” Dean asked, looking around at all the smart people at the table and wondering how none of them had come up with an even remotely possible solution, yet Chuck wraps everything up in a matter of minutes.

“Well, not quite. Michael’s been militarizing as many secs as he could in the shadows. So, while we may have the evidence to convict him, we don’t have the force to evict him,” Chuck replied as he sat back down, sipping his cocoa.

“I thought you said the rhyming phase was over a hundred years ago,” Gabriel teased from where he still sat on Sam’s lap, rolling his eyes at his dad.

“Nope, I said I was in it 120 years ago. Never said how long it lasted or that I’m past it yet,” Chuck grinned.

Gabriel snorted and shook his head. “Well I obviously didn’t get my sense of humor from you. Or mom. Huh. You sure Naomi’s my real mom?”

“Don’t know; could’ve been any number of women; I’ve never really been the monogamous type,” Chuck chuckled.

“I think both your senses of humor are a bit on the cheesy side,” Sam chimed in, earning him a pout from the friend in his lap and a laugh from Chuck. “But I love the way joking around makes you smile,” he added in a murmur against Gabe’s ear, coaxing the expression mentioned back onto his friend’s face.

“Ok, you’re grossing me out here, Sammy,” Dean complained, though his grin said he was just teasing. “So, how’re we gonna go about kickin’ out half the Shurleys?”

Chuck shrugged. “My wheelhouse is innovation, not strategy.”

“Well, we could have Michael remove Lucifer and Alastair. That would take care of half the problem. But I doubt he would Move against Naomi; not because she’s his mother, but because she is his only source of grace. Hmm…” Balthazar mused.

“What if we told him it was a promotion? Him and Naomi both. Gave them a whole new dome in need of structure and leadership?” Charlie asked.

"Charlie, that's brilliant," Balthazar said, beaming at her. "And I've a way to make that thought even better."

 

*****

 

Next Chapter: Missing Endings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting even closer to the end :D  
> One more chapter should wrap up the main fic. I plan to add some timestamp smut chapters at some point too, but the story should finish with the next chapter.
> 
> As always, questions, comments, suggestions, corrections welcome and encouraged :D


	16. Missing Endings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The End?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Chapter Rating:** Mature  
>  **Chapter Warnings:** Canon-typical violence  
>  **Chapter Pairings:** Balthazar/Rowena flirting, Sabriel, CharM, Destiel hints  
>  **Chapter Characters:** Chuck Shurley, Castiel Novak, Dean Winchester, Balthazar Rosen-Novak, Gabriel Shurley, Sam Winchester, Rowena MacLeod, Linda Tran, Kevin Tran, Anna Milton-Bradbury, Charlie Bradbury, Meg, Michael Shurley, Lucifer Shurley, Alastair, Naomi Shurley  
>  **Chapter Tags:** brief Luci smut? near the beginning, it’s the end of the tale (as we know it) :D
> 
> Thanks to the wonderful [CR Noble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/erudite12/pseuds/CR%20Noble) for being my beta! :D

Acting on information from Crowley, who, along with Meg, had been granted immunity from activities in Lucifer’s organization, Balthazar and Castiel (and Dean, who had insisted on helping even though he wasn’t a sec) led Michael and a group of his most loyal secs to E9P7 where Luc and Alastair were set up for the day. With Chuck as witness, obtaining the warrants for arrest and conviction had been quick and easy. Now, the only thing left was to present the warrants and force compliance. The secs spread out surreptitiously, blocking escape from the park, while Michael, Zar, Cas, and Dean went to confront the two men.

“Well, well, what’s with this little family reunion?” Luc asked as the men stepped up in front of his couch. As usual, there was a head in his lap, though they didn’t know who the young man bobbing over him was.

“Luci, send your ‘entertainment’ home; we need to talk to you,” Zar instructed with a pointed look at the boy.

“Why? He’s not gonna care what you have to say; Aiden’s busy,” Lucifer replied, shrugging his shoulders, arms draped along the back of the couch.

Resisting the urge to pound the smugness out of the asshole, Dean approached, putting his arms on Aiden’s shoulders and leaning down to whisper in his ear, though he hated the thought of being so close to… that. What the boy was doing. What Sam had been doing the first time Dean had ever seen the ass. The whispering was just to cover what Dean was really doing, which was injecting the kid with Meg’s antidote. After a moment Aiden sat up, spluttering, a horrified look on his face as he wiped the taste of Lucifer from his mouth. Dean managed to calm the boy, leading him away from the couch to stand behind the secs. While he quietly explained what was going on to Aiden, Balthazar frowned at Luci, who seemed intent on finishing himself off with his own hand before granting his attention.

“Right. Now that that’s done, what can I do you for?” Lucifer asked as he wiped off, tucked himself in, and zipped up.

“Lucifer Shurley, Alastair No-Last-Name, you have been accused and convicted of numerous breaches of verbal contracts, as witnessed by Chuck Shurley. By Heaven’s law, you are hereby offered a choice between execution or eviction. You may take up to ten minutes to choose,” Michael declared, not looking up from the warrant in his hands until he’d finished reading. The empty couch and chair in front of him seemed to come as a surprise, though Zar was already running after Lucifer in one direction, Cas chasing down Alastair the other way. While he stood, brow furrowed, Dean thrust Aiden at him with a quick instruction to protect the boy and ran after Cas and Alastair.

“I don’t know what good you... expect running to do,” Zar panted as he dodged around a Booth after his half-sibling. Lucifer made no reply, just continued running past the row of cubes where he forced his victims to work. “You haven’t anywhere to run… Might as well stop.”

“Well, I could, but I’d rather… not,” Luc finally tossed back as he opened the door of the last Booth in the row and stepped inside, panel swooshing shut behind him.

Swearing, Zar punched his override code into the door, glaring at the keypad when the code didn’t work. Several more tries later, the door was still firmly refusing to open. The captain called to the nearest of Michael’s secs and instructed her to subdue Luc if he emerged, and for Heaven’s sake, don’t let him get a needle anywhere near her. As he ran to help his little brother chase down Alastair, he instructed any secs he came across to go help guard Luci’s Booth.

 

*****

 

Dean was still twenty feet behind Cas, who had almost managed to overtake Alastair when the tall, lean man glanced over his shoulder.

“Dean, Alastair protocol one; protect me,” Alastair called, his whispery, harsh voice somehow managing to carry. Cas tackled him to the ground, a knee over his center of gravity to keep him pinned as he pulled out his immobilizers.

“Shit,” Dean cursed, feeling his body attempting to comply. “Castiel, might wanna hurry up there,” he warned, only seconds away from catching up.

Slipping the immobilizers onto Alastair’s wrists, Cas stood as the creepy sadist went rigid. “Dean, he’s not in danger. You can protect him by helping escort him to his new home,” the intelligent sec suggested.

Managing to stop himself just short of tackling Castiel, Dean blinked. Put that way, he could avoid hurting his friend, which was a huge relief. And it was true too. Immobilizers didn’t hurt anyone, just sent small pulses through the body that interrupted the electrical signals between brain and muscles. And they’d be taking Alastair somewhere he could do whatever he wanted. The best compliance to his order would be protecting him from staying in the dome, where he would be executed for his crimes. The reasoning placated the implanted order, while Dean fumed over the fact that the programming was there at all. “Sorry. You’re right; I’m good. Thanks for the quick thinking.” 

“I’m sorry he managed to implant hidden orders. We’ll have to do something about that. Not just for you, but for everyone who has ever been injected with croat. There must be a chemical way to counteract those kinds of directives,” Cas replied as Dean lifted Alastair’s unresisting form into his arms, cradling him protectively with a look on his face like he’d just eaten a whole lemon and chased it down with unsweetened cranberry juice.

“You can stop laughing,” Dean frowned. “It’s not funny.”

“If you could see your face right now, you’d be laughing too,” Cas replied.

Dean stalked off, back toward the park, and tried to dump the limp man on the couch, but only succeeded in laying him down gently. Standing protectively nearby, arms crossed and sour scowl maring his handsome features, Dean watched as Balthazar came from the far side of the park, arriving at nearly the same time as Cas, who briefly explained Dean’s predicament.

“Where’s Lucifer?” Michael asked, returning from the TCs, where he’d sent Aiden off to be looked over by Naomi.

“Locked himself in a booth,” Balthazar frowned. “Don’t know why he’d bother, unless he intends to do himself harm in there. And I can’t imagine he would; self harm doesn’t really seem to be his modus operandi. If he were going to choose death, I expect he would want a very public soapbox on which to be executed.”

“Soapbox?” Dean asked.

“An old saying originating in the 1800s, when people would stand on discarded wooden boxes, used to deliver soap and other dry goods, in order to be seen above crowds as they delivered speeches, usually political or religious in nature,” Michael supplied, sounding as though he’d swallowed a database. Which, considering he'd been gifted with an eidetic memory, wasn’t too far off.

“Wait, which Booth?” Cas asked, noting the several secs standing outside the Booth at the far corner. Zar raised an eyebrow as though wondering if his brother had shaken a screw loose running after Alastair, and pointed to the obvious one. “Why that one? Why not the closest one?” Cas suggested, rolling his eyes at his brother’s condescendence. 

“That’s… a very good question,” Zar replied, realizing he didn’t have an answer.

“No need to sound so surprised,” Cas grumbled.

“I’m not surprised at all,” Dean grinned, his sour, Alastair-induced mood ousted by his admiration of Castiel, who he was finding more and more amazing with each passing day.

“That’s a very good question that we can answer,” Charlie grinned, dashing over to them from the main road to the south. Behind her, Chuck came at a more leisurely pace, Anna even further back, with a limp body slung over her shoulder. Jean-clad legs were the only visible part of the unconscious person, but they obviously belonged to Lucifer.

“So, after you guys left, I got to thinking; Lucifer’s done all kinds of tech things with the Booths for his operation, like making the Booth’s computer think it was outside the dome so that anyone who did a trace on a kid wouldn’t find them, right?” Charlie didn’t notice the stunned looks around her at the revelation, she just continued on with her excited monologue. “So, if he had an escape plan set up for in case anyone tried to stop his operation, it would make sense that it would be tech in nature. Once i had that thought, it wasn’t hard to figure out what I’d do if it were me. Not that it would be me, of course, ‘cause I’d never do anything illegal,” she gushed at Chuck as he arrived, “but if it _was_ me, I’d make a program that tricked the booth into thinking the door was a wall, and the floor was a door. Then I’d make a hole from the floor-door to the access tunnels below the city. Bam, instant escape route.”

“At which point, you should have told us rather than go after Luci yourself, Char,” Balthazar admonished.

“Uncle Zar, I keep telling you, I’m eighty-one years old, you don’t need to be so overprotective all the time. And besides, I didn’t go after him myself; Anna and Chuck came with me,” Charlie protested.

“No matter how old you get, I’ll always be fifty-six years older than you, so I’ll always be protective. Neither you nor Chuck are a sec, and Anna-” 

“-may suck at detective work, but I aced combat training. As Char would say, I ‘kicked it in the ass’,” the woman in question concluded for him as she tossed Lucifer’s limp form onto the couch, where it would have landed on Alastair, if Dean hadn’t dove in, following the order to protect by deflecting Luc onto the turf. By the look on his face, Dean was obviously torn between chagrin at having protected Alastair and satisfaction at Luc landing face-first on the ground.

“The question now is, how do we remove the immobilizers for them to choose punishment without risking them running again?” Charlie asked.

“Legally, they were given ten minutes to make a decision. That time has passed without input from them; therefore, they forfeit their right to choose. In such cases, the sec serving the warrant is within rights to select for them. As such, I-” Michael intoned.

“Hold on there, Michael. The law has been updated on the subject of punishments. I kinda added in a third choice. And I’m gonna choose that for them,” Chuck interrupted.

“Third choice? What third choice?”

 

*****

 

“This is your ‘third option’? It’s utter chaos,” Michael complained, watching as a fist fight broke out not thirty yards away where several criminals were working to erect a new housing complex.

“Think this is chaos? This ain’t nothin’ next ta what’s beyond the wall,” the man who had met them at the tunnel drawled in a pre-dome accent most of the prisoner escort weren’t familiar with, as he pulled Chuck into a hug in greeting.

“Everyone, this is Benny LaFitte. Benny, everyone,” Chuck smiled by way of quick introduction.

“Y’know, it’d ‘a been safer if we’d jus’ met at the waystation,” Benny pointed out.

“I wanted to show off our work,” Chuck shrugged.

“How can you live in this?” Michael interjected, looking offended at the unorganized bustle around them.

“Aw, this ain’t so bad,” Benny commented, nodding toward where the fistfight had resolved itself with nothing more than a bloody nose and split lip. “We at least got us a few rules this side ‘a the wall. Other side? Only law there’s no killin’, and ain’t nobody around to enforce it.”

“Well, as long as my lab is safe, I don’t care what the rest of the place is like,” Naomi stated, examining the new dome with obvious disdain.

“What?” Michael asked, turning an incredulous look on his mother.

“What do you mean, what? I think my statement was fairly clear.”

“You mean you intend to stay here?” Michael clarified.

“Of course. I’ve been informed my experiments will no longer be tolerated in Heaven, so if I want to continue my research, I’ll have to move here,” Naomi replied.

“But, mother, you aren’t a sec. It’s not safe here,” Michael protested.

“As I just said, if I can keep my lab secure, this will be adequate.”

“If only there were someone who could stay with her; keep her safe, maybe bring some order to this little dome of chaos…” Balthazar commented, his light accent adding a hint of suggestion to the statement.

“... I could do that,” Michael blinked, as though surprised he’d suggested it. Mulling it over, his expression firmed into one of resolve. “I will. This place needs some order and discipline. And mother shouldn’t be alone.”

“Hey, she’s got me,” Lucifer grinned, rocking on his heels and looking like he was here for a vacation rather than being a prisoner with his hands fastened behind his back.

“Sorry, chere, don’t think we got enough of us inside to handle your libido. You’ll be livin’ in the outer sectors. Not that ya can’t visit if ya want, mind. But there’s rules on the inside an’ you’ll have ta follow ‘em, even jus’ visitin’,” Benny drawled.

“That sounds like something else I can help with,” Michael mused, giving his favorite brother an appraising look. “I’m staying here. There is much I can do to improve this place.”

“Well, then, that sounds like you have your mind made up,” Balthazar commented, visibly struggling to keep the grin off his face.

“That’s fine with me,” Chuck added. “You and Benny can work together to keep this place at least partially decent. Balthazar and Castiel can hold down the fort in Heaven. Sounds like a pretty good plan.”

“Now that that’s settled, is someone going to show me where my new lab is?” Naomi quipped.

 

*****

 

“You’re really leaving? I know you said you were going to, it’s just… there’s a lot of wilderness between here and Cloud Nine. Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Cas asked.

“Castiel,” Chuck smiled, resting a hand over his son’s cheek, “I know you’ve never been outside the dome, but it really isn’t that bad.”

“Not that bad? Sun blisters, storms, fluctuating temperatures, wild animals, criminals, poor atmosphere for breathing, clogged, overgrown roads; I may not have been there, but that doesn’t mean I know nothing about it.”

“Really, I’ll be fine. I’ve got my old solarcycle to navigate the terrain, my thermostasis suit will keep out the weather and protect my skin, I packed extra oxygen, and all the food I’m taking is nutrient dense so it’ll last me, and odorless so it won’t attract wild animals. Don’t worry so much; it makes you sound like your mother,” Chuck added with a sad smile at his son.

Cas knew he meant Becky Rosen-Novak, his real mother, not Naomi. Of all the busy changes in Heaven over the past six months, the most profound for Cas was this new, closer bond between him and his father. In the past, he’d always felt a separation between them. Now he knew that wasn’t just his imagination. His father had been keeping his distance, because he loved Castiel so much, but also couldn’t handle knowing their son was part of the reason Becky was no longer alive. Of course, Cas wasn’t the only reason, and he hadn’t known how much his father and mother had been in love, especially considering that she was just one of many of Chuck’s ‘other lovers’. “Sorry, father, I just… I don’t want you to go.”

“Hey, it’s not like I’m leaving forever. I’ll be back to visit,” Chuck soothed, wrapping his arms around his son.

“I know, it just won’t be the same. But maybe I’ll actually see you more now than when we technically lived together,” Cas replied with an attempt at humor, hugging his father back.

“Come on, you can check over my supplies, make sure I haven’t forgotten to pack anything,” Chuck grinned, blinking back the moisture in his eyes.

“Chuck, all ready to head off?” Zar asked as the pair emerged from their Northaven home.

“Trying to get rid of me?” he chuckled. “And how many times do I have to tell you to call me Dad?”

“Apologies. I’ll try to keep that in mind, Chuck,” Balthazar smirked as his younger brother went to the solarcycle and began checking through the packed bags. Dean joined him, checking over the bike to make sure everything was working and in good condition. Over the past six months, the two had become practically inseparable though neither admitted to anything more than friendship.

“Don’t worry, Chuck, I’ll never call you anything but Dad,” Gabriel grinned, clapping his dad on the shoulder.

“Of course you will,” Chuck laughed, pulling his youngest son into a hug.

“Hey, now, don’t mus the hair; it’s the only thing Sam likes about me,” Gabe chuckled as Chuck rubbed a hand through his floppy, dark blonde locks.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Gabe, you know I love your cute ass too,” Sam teased as Chuck released his son to give his future son-in-law a hug too.

“You’ll send a message when you two set a date, right?” 

“No, Dad, we’re gonna invite everyone but you,” Gabe snarked with a roll of his eyes.

“I’ll make sure to let you know. We’re planning on waiting at least two years though. There’s still a lot of work with Rowena ahead of us,” Sam assured.

“At least you know no one will be able to use croat, grace or any similar drug on you, or anyone else in the dome, ever again,” Chuck offered apologetically, though he wasn’t really at fault for the drugs. In fact, he was the one who had examined the differences between grace and croat and their respective preventatives, and created a universal inoculation against such drugs.

“And we have each other. That’s what’s important,” Gabriel added, taking Sam’s hand and squeezing.

“Hey, wasn’t Anna coming to see me off?” Chuck asked, clearing his throat to remove the lump trying to form there.

“She should be here. Last we spoke, she was leaving and only had to swing by to pick up Char on the way,” Balthazar frowned, glancing down the empty street toward the TCs.

“Maybe Charlie wasn’t ready yet?” Dean suggested from where he was still examining the solarbike.

Gabriel snickered. “Who wants to bet on how far into it she and Meg were when Anna got there?”

“Gabe! That’s not something you should be betting on,” Sam chided, though he added under his breath, “Two credits says they were over halfway through.”

Snickering, the shorter boy wrapped his arms around his fiance.

Sam smiled warmly, hugging him back. Gabriel’s mirth was contagious, and Sam hadn’t realised how much he’d missed it until it was back again.

“What are we bettin’ on?” Rowena lilted as she, Linda, and Kevin approached from the direction of the institute, where they’d just finished a session.

“Nothing,” Zar replied quickly with an admonishing look at Gabe and Sam, who burst into laughter.

“Row, Linda, I wasn’t expecting to see you two,” Chuck said, grinning at his sometimes lovers.

“Didnae think you’d be sneakin’ off without sayin’ goodbye, did you?” Rowena chuckled, lashes of her catlike eyes lowering coquettishly.

“Wasn’t sure you’d want me to say goodbye,” Chuck shrugged sheepishly. “It didn’t seem like you were too happy with the idea of me leaving.”

“We aren’t,” Linda replied. “I doubt anyone is, really. After all, few people know what instigated all the changes over the last half a year. All they know is that Michael’s gone and you and Balthazar have taken over, giving the laws a thorough overhaul and adding lesser punishments for lesser crimes. The new inoculations you had everyone get raised a few eyebrows, but no one ever questions you, Chuck. Any changes after you’re gone, though…”

“I’m sure Zar can handle it. And with Castiel as his second in command, I feel pretty confident of the future of the dome. It’s time I go help some of the other places. Zachariah has made quite a mess of things over in Cloud Nine.”

“An’ you’ll be coming back to check on us after they’ve been sorted?” Rowena asked.

“Of course. I’ll visit a bit before heading to Purgatory to see how Eve’s getting on with her dome,” Chuck confirmed, hugging Rowena, Linda, and an embarrassed Kevin in turn.

“What about the domes overseas?” Balthazar asked. He’d never talked about his extensive time spent in Europe, or the child he had there, but he worried about Toni and Basil Bevell often.

“I’ve kept in contact with your friend Mick. He says the domes there are a bit rigid, but running smoothly. Actually, most of the European domes are connected by underground tunnels so there’s much more interaction between them. And they instituted a prison dome nearly a hundred years ago. Mick says it’s done well, managed by whoever can challenge and defeat the previous warden. It’s been under leadership of a guy named Ketch for the past fifty years or so. I’ve been working on designing a solar plane for a while now, but I’m still a ways away from getting it working safely. Cross-ocean travel really took a hit when the fossil fuels ran out.”

“No exaggeration there. Spending months crossing on a wind-powered ship was terribly slow and monotonous,” Balthazar agreed. “Do let me know if you get that solar plane working, would you? It would be nice to visit England for a bit.”

“Of course. Right now, it’s just in the planning stages; computer generated models and stuff, so I can work on it anywhere. The minute the design becomes viable, I’ll get it built, tested, and you’ll be on the first overseas flight,” Chuck promised.

“Thanks, Dad,” Zar replied quietly with a warm smile, wondering how much his father knew about his time in Europe. If he’d been in contact with Mick, probably quite a bit.

“Hello, sorry we’re late,” Anna said as she, Charlie, and Meg arrived from the direction of the TCs.

Taking in the dishevelled appearance of Meg and Charlie, and the blush on the latter’s face, Gabe and Sam exchanged a knowing grin.

“Hi, Anna,” Chuck said, pulling his daughter into a hug.

“Hey, Dad. I’m glad we made it before you left.”

“I’m not in that much of a hurry to get out of here,” Chuck chuckled as he hugged Char and a surprised Meg too.

“I hope you have a safe journey, sir,” Meg mumbled, a rare blush staining her cheeks.

“Hey, no need for ‘sir’, call me Chuck,” he said quietly, keeping his arms around her. “You know that, no matter your origins, what you make of your life is up to you, right? You’re as much a citizen of Heaven as any other person here, and don’t ever let anyone tell you differently.” 

“Meg? Hey, what’s wrong?” Charlie asked, enfolding her girlfriend in her arms as Chuck released her. Their exchange had been too quiet for anyone to hear.

“Nothing,” Meg replied, wiping moisture from her cheeks and staring at the drops glistening on her fingers as though she’d never seen tears before. “It’s fine. I’m fine,” she added shakily, turning into Charlie’s embrace and burrowing into the small, soft pillow of her chest.

“You’re finer than fine, if you ask me” Charlie grinned, sliding a hand down to squeeze Meg’s ass.

“Flatterer,” Meg hiccuped against Char’s breasts, coming out somewhere between a sob and a laugh.

“Love you,” Charlie murmured against Meg’s dark curls.

“Well,” Chuck said, clapping his hands together to break the small spell that had settled over the group, “time to get this show on the road.”

“Your bike looks good to go. If you have any problems, radio us; I have an old bike of my own, I can come to you if needed, or talk you through repairs,” Dean said as he and Cas stepped away from the solarcycle at Chuck’s approach.

“I put in a tool kit and a tube of liquid foam in case you have to deflate the tires for any reason and need to refill them,” Castiel added.

“Thanks, you two,” Chuck said, hugging Dean then giving Castiel another, longer hug. “Promise me you’ll look after each other?” he asked his son.

“Me and Dean?” Cas asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

“You _are_ good friends, right?”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Cas blushed.

“Balthazar,” Chuck added as he swung a leg over the solarcycle and kicked the stand up, “take good care of Heaven. Oh, and look after Row for me, would you?” Chuck winked.

“Already planned on it, though it’s not for you,” Zar laughed.

“An’ I think I’ll be the one watching him,” Rowena grinned.

“Oh, will you now?” Zar asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I think you’re going to have your hands full,” Chuck laughed.

“An’ then some,” Row smirked.

Flipping the switch on the handlebar, Chuck started up the bike which began to vibrate lightly beneath him, the hum of its engine so quiet it was hard to tell it was even on. Battery fully charged, the bike had more than enough energy to get to the western exit of the dome. Once outside, the sun’s rays would power it and recharge the battery. Looking around at the teary smiles surrounding him, Chuck grinned tenderly.

“Somehow, it feels like the end of an era,” Zar commented as his father checked the fastenings on his gear one last time.

“Every childhood comes to an end,” Chuck replied as he straightened back up. “But that only marks the beginning of adulthood, where you get to make your own choices. Sure, it requires more from you; responsibility, integrity, citizenship, caring for more than just your own happiness. But the rewards are so worth it.” With a final wave, he nudged the bike into gear, off to help his non-biological children start their own paths to adulthood too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s the end of the tale, as we know it… and it’s early too! Couple reasons for that. One, it’s the last chapter (of the main story. I’m hoping to add in a few smut timestamps at some point, just to see where all the main couples wind up), and the other reason is, i’m having minor surgery tomorrow and want to make sure this is out now just in case recovery or whatever takes longer than expected.
> 
> As always, questions, comments, suggestions, corrections welcome and encouraged :D


	17. Not Missing Terminology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> characters, tech, terms, and locations in Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have 4 timestamps planned. but a friend asked if I minded a fanfic of this fanfic, and I don't mind that at all!!! so I'd planned on adding this last but figured I'd post it now. If anyone else wants to make a story in this universe, please do! all I ask is you let me know first and make sure to link to forgotten lies :D
> 
> the summary at the bottom is what happens when I have a dream that inspires a fic. big long block of stream of consciousness, and there are a lot of differences between the dream and the finished fic. be aware, this has the same tags/warnings as the main fic since any or all of that could be mentioned in the summary (I didn't reread it. oops? hehe)
> 
> last note: if there are any terms/characters/locations that I left out but you'd like to know about, please leave a comment and i'll be thrilled to add anything anyone needs :D

supernatural - Forgotten Lies in a Dystopian Heaven notes

 

**General Notes:**

Years are PD (pre-dome) and AD (after-dome).  Heaven was populated in 2278 by the Gregorian calendar.  Story starts on June 30, 120 AD.  Days run from 00:00(dawn) to full daylight at 01:00, dusk at 13:00, full dark at 14:00 lasting until 23:59.59.

 

 **Characters:** (physical age/actual age) +indicates deceased

**chuck shurley (47/169):** Birthday September 21, 50 PD. married to naomi, who is married to her work. had 4 kids together; michael, lucifer, raphael (deceased), and gabriel.  chuck, however, sleeps around.  a lot.  has lots of other kids, including castiel, balthazar (both taken in when their mom died), anna, Inias, and any other angels i care to toss in there.  chuck is a brilliant scientist who created the Heaven dome which became a model for other domes, but he's gotten tired of pretty much everything 'cept screwing around.  stopped aging three years before the dome opened.

**naomi shurley (53/176):** Birthday August 28, 56 PD.  scientist, married to chuck, invented the drug lucifer uses.  meant to be used for interrogating suspected criminals without their knowing it; causes injected person to be compliant to whoever's dna has been added; when drug wears off person will not remember, will only remember whatever story the controller told them to account for the missing time.  a bit overzealous.  Created Michael, lucifer, and raphael in her lab, using her eggs, chuck’s sperm (different sperm for raph though).  Gabriel was created naturally, and very surprisingly, the first time she actually slept with chuck.  She’d thought her body was too old to conceive a child so never bothered with fertility stasis for herself. stopped aging 3 years before the dome opened, same as her husband.

**lucifer shurley (44/166):** dealer/pimp.  drugs random kids, aged 14-17, and sends them into 'booths' with whoever is willing to pay the work hours for it.  hangs out with alastair and meg.  crowley handles most of the running of the operation. (was naomi’s first attempt at artificially growing a child; not liking babies and kids and teenagers and parenting in general, she sped his aging, resulting in a flawed end product but as he was biologically chuck and naomi’s, chuck refused to allow her to ‘terminate the project’) (no official birthday)

**michael shurley (28/150):** head of police force, also a bit overzealous like his mom.  fond of capital punnishment, since it helps delay the eventual overcrowding and acts as a deterrent to crime.  (naomi’s second BEC, chuck found out about him early and insisted he not be artificially aged so chuck was stuck raising him.  Did a fairly good job too) (no official birthday)

**+Raphael Shurley (15/15):** died of lukemia pre-dome when he was 15. (naomi’s third BEC, also raised by chuck though he wasn’t made with chuck’s dna) (no official birthday)

**Gabriel shurley (16/16):**  Birthday September 4, 103 AD.  Naturally born child of Chuck and Naomi, born in 103 AD.  chuck had hoped he'd bring out naomi's maternal instinct, but he instead wound up being raised largely by balthazar.  passes the challenge to be a holo director at age 16.  best friends with sam winchester since childhood, eventually becoming lovers.

**+Becky Rosen-Novak (45/144):**  Birthday May 4, 44 PD. killed herself at 144.  Had serious affair with Chuck 19-21 years PD resulting in Balthazar.  Entered Heaven with her husband, Jimmy Novak, 1 AD; Balthazar was 18 and chose to remain outside.  Jimmy’s 16 year old daughter, Claire, entered with them (he was a widower when he and Becky married).  Jimmy died 92 AD.  Chuck wooed Becky back, in 94 AD, Castiel was born 99 AD and Becky killed herself shortly thereafter.

**Balthazar Rosen-Novak (46/137):** Birthday August 4, 17 PD.  Zar joined his parents in Heaven in 29 AD.  Captain of detective division in SS-A, partnered to Anna Milton-Bradbury, friend/mentor/uncle figure to Anna's half-sister Charlie Bradbury.  he's single, but enjoys flirting and sex with whomever.  Must have picked it up from his dad, though he honestly doesn't much care for the man.

**Castiel Novak (20/20):**  Birthday August 20, 99 AD.  love child of becky and chuck, he was raised largely by his brother balthazar. passed his challenge at 12 and works as a special consultant for the security division making security programs.  due to an aversion to blades, he specialized in unarmed combat.  being highly intelligent and having a scientific mind, he's earned naomi's approval, though he doesn't care about that.  his stepmother largely ignored him until he started showing academic promise and cas is loyal to the brother who raised him rather than his father and step-mother.  never realized the reason chuck spent so much time away from home was because he reminded his father of becky, who had been chuck's only true love.

**Dean Winchester (20/20):** Birthday Jan 24, 100 AD.  oldest son of john and mary winchester, he basically raised his brother after his mother's unexpected death.  passed challenge at 16, so works 20 hours a week doing mechanical maintainance.  has had physical altercations with his father.

**Sam Winchester (16/16):** Birthday May 2, 104 AD.  youngest child of john and mary winchester, mainly raised by his older brother dean.  best friends with gabriel shurley from an early age. eventually they become lovers.  very intelligent, passes the challenge to be a writer at age 16.

**John Winchester (29/45):**  Birthday April 22, 75 AD. Widower, was married to mary campbell until she died, after which he spent every hour he wasn't working in the holo-room with holo-vids of her.  a broken man, whose only remaining friends are Bobby and Karen Singer, and Bill and Ellen Harvelle, none of whom he spends much time with outside of work.  passed his challenge at age 20, works 60 hours/week doing mechanical maintainance.

**Charlie Bradbury (32/81):**  Birthday June 28, 39 AD. reporter and tech genius. has natural curiosity that has turned to tech due to lack of interesting things to report in the dome over the past 40-50 years or so.  Balthazar is like a protective uncle or older brother to her, since he's been partnered with her half-sister as long as she can remember.  has lots of tech and gadgets that might be made illegal if they were known about (and a few that outright are illegal that she keeps under wraps).  allows uncle zar to use some of her tech because she trusts him not to tell anyone about them or misuse them.

**Anna (Annael) Milton-Bradbury(32/133):** Birthday December 11, 14 PD. partnered with balthazar in the detective division, though she's not very enthusiastic about detective work.  she does, however, excel at dealing with the public and the media, so she handles that part of the job while Zar does the actual detective work.

**Gertrude Milton-Bradbury(32/151):**  Birthday February 14, 32 PD, Anna and Charlie's Mom.  had anna (chuck was father) out of wedlock when she was 18, later got married to Richard Bradbury who adopted anna, and they had Charlie in 39AD

**Fergus "Crowley" MacLeod(54(35)/146):**  Birthday May 30, 26 PD. joined his mom in Heaven in 28 AD. worked in business before the dome, now does work assignments and procures rarities for the museum of history as a hobby.  aged to 54 before joining Heaven, but physical appearance and health are closer to 35.

**Rowena MacLeod(42/??):**  has never told anyone her birthday or actual age.  one of the first residents, head of psychological research.  She’d slept with chuck while the dome was being built and given him advice about including places for social gathering.  Hosts parties in The Square on Friday nights.

**Alastair(35/32?):** BEC orphan, found wandering the streets around 7-8 years old; physical age testing was inconclusive. 7-8 was Rowena’s estimation and even she was thrown a bit because he seemed to know both more and less than he should.  Tortured/raped meg for two years before he moved out of the LM, convincing her she liked it because they were the same, and no one else in the dome could ever understand her the way he could.

**Meg(21/21):** BEC orphan, found around age 5 (age was easier to determine than alastair’s), works as a sci-tech investigator, passed challenge at 18 so has 40 hour work weeks.  abused by Alistair for years, then worked for luc's organization doing torture shows.  helped the victims as much as she could without luc or alastair finding out.

**BEC:** (Lucifer, Michael, +Raphael), Lilith, Azazel, Ramiel, Dagon, Asmodeus, Cain, Abaddon, Alastair, Meg, Ruby: made by Naomi without Chuck’s knowledge, found wandering the streets of Heaven at various times, at various ages.  They were raised at the LM by various teachers over the years.  Of the first seven, only Ramiel and Cain are living in Heaven.  The other five have been exiled for various reasons.  Ramiel lives alone (E3) and works at The Zoo.  Cain and his wife Colette (E3) both work at The Garden.  Alastair (S7) and Meg(S8) are both secs.  Ruby is still at the LM

**Orphans:** Krissy Chambers, Jesse Cuevas, Cesar Ateo

**Benny Lafitte(34/117):**  Birthday January 28, 3AD, born in Soucouyant Dome, he was convicted of violence (killed the man who killed his wife) and evicted.  Chuck eventually recruited him to lead the building of Hell Dome and run it after completion. [his great-grandaughter, Elizabeth, still lives in Soucouyant]

 

**Tech:**

**Holo-room:** basically a holo-deck.

**challenge:** trials to join the working force in your chosen profession.  Held quarterly by cardinal sector- North; Jan 1, South: April 1, East: July 1, West: October 1

**Learning Modules:** school

**TC, aka Turbo Chairs:** chairs enclosed in a plastic bubble which can take a person any set location in Heaven in seconds.

**Booth:** small private rooms where citizens can access a computer, food synth, table/chairs, bioc, or bed.

**Bioc:** basically new word for bathroom, short for biological chamber.

**Chuckle:**  portable data storage device invented by Chuck, voice activated, only for dictation, keeping calendar, storing information (‘cause no wireless)

**Bio-cleanse:** dry shower

**PDS:** portable data storage (basically an external hard drive)

**Synthesizer:** makes food/drink

**“sun”:** Heaven’s artificial daylight was supplied by a bright solar collector directly above Center, which drew in light from the sun, filtered out the harmful rays, using their energy to power Heaven, and sent most of the healthy, vitamin-D rich light to shine from the center of the dome for 12 hours a day.  Takes an hour to warm up and an hour to cool down, an artificial dawn and twilight. Dawn at 24:00 to 01:00, daylight from 01:00 to 13:00, dusk from 13:00 to 14:00, dark from 14:00 to 24:00

**News Network:** what it sounds like :D print and video news.

**Nano-medics:** nanobots that heal cuts, bruises, aches and pains.

**BEC:**  Biologically engineered child/children

**Ag sleeper:**  anti-grav sleeper.  a flat bed with an anti-gravity field.  it allows free-floating freedom of movement which allows

**SS:** Security Station, or Security Service, the name for public service workers

**Sec:** security officer, branches of specialty include: law review, enforcement, detective, secretarial, protection, warning/disaster, sci-tech investigator

**LM Orphanage:** where children with no living relatives are raised; connected to the Learning Modules.

 

**Locations:**

**Center:** holds the challenge ring, bordered on the north by the Shurley Residence, east by The Garden, south by the Training Grounds, west by the Learning Modules.

**Northaven:** well-to-do sector, houses the Shurley house which overlooks The Center, and The Institute (discovey)

**Easthaven:**  houses The Garden and The Zoo (News/Arts/entertainment/theology)

**Southaven:**  houses Training Grounds and Security Station A (security)

**Westhaven:**  houses the Learning Modules and Museums (maintenance)

Other sectors are labled by direction and number, N1-N9, E1-E9, S1-S9, and W1-W9, numbered clockwise from inward out.

**TCs:**  Turbo Chair station

**Security Stations:** kind of a combination of police precincts, courts, and emergency response, one per sector, labeled SS-sector. For example, SS-N2 or SS-E5

**SS-A:** main SS, responsible for Southaven in addition to managing the rest of the Security Stations.

**SS-B:** Northaven’s SS

**SS-C:** Easthaven’s SS

**SS-D:** Westhaven’s SS

**Parks:**  several in every sector, artificial turf with playground equipment, seating, surrounded by Booths.  Labeled by sector, set along exterior circumference, numbered clockwise.  For example, E6P1 is the northernmost park among the east sectors.  Had been suggested by Rowena to Chuck during liaisons, because people are social creatures and need places where they can gather.

**The Square:**  fountain in Northaven surrounded by tiled mosaic; holo-tiles can produce specified seating, fountain can play music, synths along the north offer regional food choices meant to expand people’s pallets.  Functions as a place for social gatherings, since Heaven doesn’t have bars, restaurants, or nightclubs.  Rarely used since people tend to prefer to amuse themselves with their holo-rooms at home.  Had been suggested by Rowena to Chuck during liaisons, because people are social creatures and need places where they can gather.

 

**Additional Author's Notes:**

1)  waaaay too much research went into people's ages for this.  wanted ages and birthdays to match the spn character's, or, in the case of angels/demons/age-not-stated characters, matched them with the actors'.

2)  gertrude milton-bradbury.  one, that last name sounds too much like the board game company hehe.  but the character herself, is named gertrude after charlie's mother, gertrude middleton, and milton after anna's mother amy milton.  rich bradbury, charlie's dad, was named after anna's dad, richard milton, and charlie's cannon name, charlie bradbury.  why do i make things unnecessarily complicated? :D

3)  the domes in the US are all named after afterlife themes.  Soucouyant, where Benny is from, is located in Louisiana and named after the Voodoo vampire spirit.

 

**the dream on which the story was based - aka, what passes for my outline (note that a lot of things changed as i was writing):**

future, kids are put into specialty programs for schooling, some are paired off very young to kids in the same specialty.  Dean is looking for his little brother sam in the challenge dome.  kids are encouraged to take the challenge as soon as they feel ready, though most fail untill their late teens.  anna is an incompetent cop, underling or partnered to balthazar, who acutally is competent but hasn't been able to figuer out what's been going on or how, though he knows there's something wrong at the challenge dome.  charlie is a reporter who keeps catching hints that something's not right, though the parents and kids there for the challenges don't seem to notice.  Dean runs into cas, younger brother of sam's friend gabriel, asks if he's seen sam; he hasn't, and his brother's missing too.  dean keeps searching.  char winds up on a training thingy that goes up and down between floors.  idea is to climb the ropes up, i think, then step off onto your level.  something with floor raising to get people up to the ropes, don't remember, but charlie somehow breaks it when it gets stuck and she can't wait or something, jumps down several levels causing it to break which delays balthazar from getting to where he was going trying to find the missing gabriel.  dean finds balthazar with gabriel, who says sam is with gabriel's older brother lucifer and alastair.  the two are asses, and dean suspects something rotton was going on, but just takes sam home, forgetting to call cas to let him know they'd been found, since gabriel had been with the cop.  cas calls late that night, asking if he's found gabriel and sam, and dean tells why he hadn't called.  castiel insists gabe hasn't been home and dean feels like an ass for not having called him, so he goes out and helps cas look.  charlie starts to notice kids being led off, always around the hyper-trans, chairs that move, 10 at a time, super fast to get from one end of the dome to the other within seconds instead of the hour or so it would take to walk, 8 per level, evenly spaced around the city-sized circular enclosure, on every level.  other adults don't seem to notice, or if they do, they ignore it, assuming (hoping) there's nothing wrong, or if there is, someone else will do something about it.  charlie starts investigating, gets bumped, next thing she knows she's in a Booth with meg who introduces herself and tells her what happened.  charlie was drugged with croat, a designer drug that makes a person compliant to the person whose dna (spit) has been added to the drug.  drugged person also will not remember being drugged or what happened during that time; they will fill the missing time with whatever the controller tells them happened.  meg says she couldn't let that creep alistaire have charlie so she bought her instead, but only took a little advantage of the drugged charlie (and she was very good *smirk*), and then gave her the antidote, but charlie has to act like she's still drugged when they leave (just before the drug would normally wear off so that the controller doesn't have time to sell her to someone else). they arranged to meet at meg's place and meg becomes a confidential informant, telling charlie everything she knows of the operation.  she'd idolized lucifer, been very happy when she'd been allowed to join his crowd, but then she'd started finding strange aches, sore spots, faint scars, and once she was too old for being sold, alistaire had claimed her as his own, delighting in torturing her over and over, the faint white scars becoming more and more numerous until eventually every inch of her skin was scar so that she looked like untouched porcelain.  (modern healing removed most injuries, leaving just a faint scar)  masterpiece finished, he offered to release her if she could please him with the sight of her torturing others (he jacked off to it; sick bastard).  and she did, just to be free of the constant pain.  after a while she even started to like it too,  but at some point she realized even though she'd been given her freedom, and was now helping with the operation, recruiting new pimps and dealers from their victim pools (because by then, most of the kids had been victims at some point or other), she was still being drugged now and then.  since her work there was as a scientist, she took a sample of the drug and engineered a cure for it, which didn't really help once she was under the influence of the drug, so she went a step further and made a preventative.  had to be taken daily, but made her undruggable.  since then, she'd been growing more and more horrified, seeing things she knows must have happened to her but not remembering them, and the poor kids, especially the ones alistaire got a hold of... she'd decided there had to be a way to stop this, though the operation was extensive and the victims couldn't report anything because they didn’t remember being victims.  charlie loves her sister as family, but doesn't like her at all as a person; she's lazy, glory-hungry, and wouldn't know a clue if it bit her in the ass.  balthazar though, he's good, so charlie takes meg's story to him.  the dome, heavenly halls, called heaven for short, was created by chuck shurley, who happens to be lucifer's father.  his wife, naomi, is luci's mom.  naomi isn't a bad woman, but she developed the drug for interrogating personnel suspected of wrongdoings, never having guessed her son had stolen some and learned how to produce his own.  chuck is a good guy too, who truly wanted to create a utopian model.  he'd had a number of extra-marital flings, most of which ended in kids like anna and cas (and secretly balthazar).  but who could blame him; three of the four kids he'd had with her had been created artificially (gabe having been the exception when naomi had complained about him sleeping around and he had complained about her never letting him even consummate their marriage.  after one time sleeping with him she'd said just be more discreet and stop having kids all over the place)  chuck doesn't know what to do and decides to run away and leave cleaning up the mess to his son michael,  but destiel and sabriel (who've grown closer throughout and uncovered the drug/sex ring on their own while overcoming the evidences of having all been abused themselves) convince him to stay and he winds up, with help from zar, charlie, meg, dean, castiel, sam, and gabriel, finding a solution and fixing the problem quietly, most people being none the wiser.


End file.
